New Tobii Collaboration Pioneers Next-Gen Eye-Tracking Tech for XR Headsets

Okay, so here’s the scoop. I came across some news today about Tobii, you know, the eye-tracking wizards? They’re teaming up with Prophesee, who apparently do all this cool stuff with cameras and sensors that mimic how our eyes actually see things. Kind of wild, right? Unlike your typical camera that just snaps everything in sight, Prophesee’s gear only picks up changes like movement—not every little detail—which makes it, uh, faster? And less power-hungry? Yeah, works for all kinds of tech like self-driving cars and industrial stuff. But now they’re eyeing (yeah, pun intended) smart glasses and AR/VR headsets.

The two companies are like, “Hey, let’s make this insanely fast and efficient eye-tracking thingy for all these tiny but high-demand smart wearables.” No biggie, just re-inventing the wheel or whatever.

Luca Verre, Prophesee’s CEO, jumps in and says their tech is perfect for this low-power, always-on type of thing. It’s weirdly satisfying to think about, like, all these tiny sensors just doing their thing without needing a ton of juice. Luca’s super proud of this team-up, says it builds on years of partnership—probably because, you know, Tobii is pretty big in the eye-tracking world.

Then Emma Bauer from Tobii—she’s a big deal there—mentions how smart glasses need this ultra-low power and high performance. Makes me wonder, why does everything that’s tiny and techy demand so much?

There’s a photo in the mix too—Ray-Ban Meta Glasses or something. I didn’t look too closely, but you get the idea.

Emma wraps things up by saying their collaboration with Prophesee will give people more flexibility in their tech designs. Kind of like adding another arrow to their quiver, I guess.

Oh, and did I mention Tobii’s pretty much the heavyweight champ in eye-tracking? They were like pioneers in VR headsets doing all these things like foveated rendering—whatever that is—helping with social VR and stuff. You can find their tech in headsets like the PlayStation VR 2 and some others I’ve never heard of—but that just goes to show they’re everywhere now. So there you go, this shiny future is already on its way and it feels… almost like sci-fi, doesn’t it?