SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Tobii, a top developer of eye tracking technology, announced that it will work with Lumus, a leader in transparent displays for augmented reality (AR), to incorporate eye tracking technology as part of the Lumus DK50 AR development kit. Prototypes of the Lumus DK50 AR development kit with integrated Tobii eye tracking will be privately demonstrated at Augmented World Expo (AWE). Tobii executives announced the news at last week’s AWE in Santa Clara, Calif. “This collaboration provides additional evidence for the strong demand we are experiencing to integrate eye tracking technology into both AR and VR devices,” said Oscar Werner, business unit president of Tobii Tech.

“For the last two years, we have been focusing on partnerships and projects to integrate eye tracking into VR headsets to bring about better VR devices and better user experiences. In parallel, we see a growing interest in AR, where the benefits of eye tracking are even stronger.”

With Tobii eye tracking, both AR glasses and VR headsets can become much more responsive to the user as devices gain the ability to understand where user attention is focused. Displays can then present AR information and potential courses of action based on that attention data.

Another key benefit that eye tracking brings to AR is that many next generation image rendering techniques require information about where a user’s eyes are positioned, and where they are focusing their gaze, to convincingly align an augmented reality image on the display, according to Tobii.

“At Lumus, our mission is to deliver the world’s best transparent displays for smart eyewear and head-mounted displays that transform the way people interact with reality. Lumus is committed to finding and working with best-in-class technology partners to demonstrate the personalized responsiveness of AR content,” said Eli Glikman, chief product officer at Lumus. “In partnering with Tobii, we can offer device manufacturers an extremely compelling AR display combination.”