Via Rochester Business Journal
Eye-tracking sensor technology that can detect and follow a person’s gaze can have a transformative impact across industries. It can provide surgeons with new ways of operating and training medical students, it can enhance AR and VR experiences, and have thousands of industrial uses.
Despite the potential, general eye-tracking systems are more suited to controlled lab environments, as they need to be frequently calibrated, and a slip or move during operation can cause a system to deliver inaccurate information. Most systems rely on image processing to detect various eye features from an eye image, so any optical disturbance, such as wearing eyeglasses or make-up, having dark eye color or being near surrounding illumination, can cause a failure.
Finish-startup SeeTrue Technologies is paving the way for the technology to be widely used in commercial and industrial applications by making sensors that are robust. A spinoff from the University of Eastern Finland, the company has been building its eye-tracking solution for more than six years. The customizable solution is based on a decade of research and hands-on experience in computational optics and applied eye-tracking, led by the company’s co-founder and CEO, Roman Bednarik, who is Professor of Interactive Technologies at the University of Eastern Finland and creator of the first eye-tracker for surgical microscopes.
“We started developing our eye-tracking solutions in neurosurgical operating rooms (OR), an environment where eye sensors must work 100 percent of the time,” said Bednarik. “This mission-critical environment pushed us to come up with a solution that works not only in the OR, but everywhere, and with everybody.”
Combining Robust Hardware and Advanced Optics Technology for Customizable Eye-Tracking Solutions
Years of research and development led the SeeTrue Technologies’ team to a customizable system with high-speed eye-tracking sensors that allow users to precisely monitor eye movements, eye location, and vital signals; control and interact with devices; and cue visual attention. SeeTrue’s customers, therefore, can create an innovative user experience unlocking the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of the users. The sensors are invisible to the user, do not restrict the field-of-view, and are compatible with most eyewear. Unlike earlier technology that was restricted to lab environments, SeeTrue Technologies’ eye-tracking only needs to be calibrated once per each user rather than each time a device is used, making them easily integrated into workflows.
The sensors can tolerate device slippage and head and user movement, making them suitable for a wide population of users in a variety of environments. For instance, they can be embedded into medical equipment, such as ocular medical devices that are used in operating rooms and integrated into wearables and head mounted displays used to build intelligent user interfaces in various industrial, commercial, and consumer applications.
“We have seen thousands of applications of eye-tracking, from use in healthcare and training to consumer use in AR and AR headsets and have created a product that can be customized to fit any industry,” said Bednarik. “Our unique patented solutions provide market-level accuracy coupled with unprecedented robustness. This is the only eye tracking ready for mass markets.”