The Apple rumour mill churned a perennial favourite back to the surface this week when new patent applications from the company referring to augmented reality distortion tech
There, fixed.
Apple's looking at you, kid: Fanbois froth over AR patent docs for gaze tracking headset
The Apple rumour mill churned a perennial favourite back to the surface this week when new patent applications from the company referring to augmented reality tech were published. The application, spotted by Apple Insider on Thursday, proposes a "Display Device" that drawings indicate is clearly a front-of-face headset with …
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Friday 20th September 2019 13:28 GMT OrientalHero
I thought some monitors already had eye tracking software. I definitely remember the option on some of my games. Ah having googled it, it's provided by Tobii and built into some monitors.
I guess the main difference is that it will track you outside in the real world and see what your anatomical preference is.
No way that can happen on a monitor at home... Hmmm. Yes, only look at people in long coats.
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Friday 20th September 2019 13:42 GMT Paul Johnson 1
Big brother will know what you like.
What you look at, and for how long, is a big clue about what you like. If your eyes spend more time on something then its a good bet its because you like looking at it. People with weight problems often spend more time looking at food adverts or outlets. And which bits of which other people do your eyes tend to linger on? See this article for more details. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj9ygv/the-eyes-are-the-prize-eye-tracking-technology-is-advertisings-holy-grail
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Friday 20th September 2019 14:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Big brother will know what you like.
@ Paul Johnson 1
It would be cheaper for Apple to employ my partner. Always seems to know which part of a persons body I am looking at. As in, what you looking at his arse for? is it better than mine? (The answer is always, always, no)
Cheers…ghost deejay
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Friday 20th September 2019 13:52 GMT adrianww
Forveal???
Given the description in the article, shouldn't that be foveal? Last time I looked, there's no such thing as a "forvea", just a "fovea" (or "fovea centralis" if you prefer its Sunday name) which is, indeed, the most sensitive part of the retina where light can fall directly onto cone cells.
Or has the computer industry taken its usual approach of inventing a similar-sounding new word to hide the fact that a bunch of software/hardware engineers and IT salesdroids can't use a medical dictionary?
(Mine's the one with the copy of "The Human Eye: Its Structure and Function" in the pocket...)
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Friday 20th September 2019 16:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Maybe it's just me but isn't AR supposed to avert your gaze to where it wants me to look? So for example if it shows me a donner kebab or toasted crumpets that's where I'm going to look. What could be the possible advantage of knowing where I'm looking or my preference to certain things? Oh wait, I think I know the answer to that.
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Friday 20th September 2019 16:28 GMT ecarats
Is there anything novel in this?
This seems at about the same level of quality as some of their other related patents for things like VR hand tracking. Nothing obviously original or novel in terms of ideas and lots of stuff that's already offered commercially in some form elsewhere. Even allowing for the delay in the thins coming through these are weak.
I know some companies like to throw patents around like confetti but I just can't see how some of these got through an initial review with a patent attorney.
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Friday 20th September 2019 22:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
This is just one random patent they filed
Every big company files a ton of patents that don't end up seeing the light of day, because they think of a better to way to do something, decide not to release the product that would use it, etc.
Trying to guess what Apple may or may not do with AR from a single patent is ridiculous. They've had a lot of patents for stuff they never released, or stuff they ended up doing a different way (i.e. early 'FaceID' patents)
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Friday 20th September 2019 23:17 GMT The Mighty Spang
total big brother
they detect when you are gazing at your favorite kind of bits of other humans then automatically fine you, cancel your twitch channel, delete your twitter, notify the local press or employer and call in a reddit hate mob. Youtubers who thrive on controvercy can pay to get early access to these notifcations so they can maximize their content promoting metal wallets,VPN solutions or shitty mobile games.
