CES 2017: Tobii Brings Eye Tracking to PC Gaming, Consumer Notebooks, VR & Smartphones

Tobii, the global leader in eye tracking, is poised for another year of industry-leading innovation as it brings eye tracking solutions to multiple new consumer technology categories including VR, personal computing and smartphones. Building on rapid 2016 growth with the introduction of six consumer eye tracking devices, including the Alienware 17 gaming notebook and several monitors from Acer’s Predator gaming line, Tobii will showcase what this year has in store at the 2017 International CES in Las Vegas, Jan. 5-8.

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Acer Aspire V 17 Nitro Black Edition with integrated Tobii eye tracking, creating smoother workflows and enhanced navigation in Windows 10. (Photo: Business Wire)

"In the past 12 months we’ve seen The Eye Tribe acquired by Facebook, EyeFluence acquired by Google, FOVE take its first pre-orders and multiple consumer integrations of our own technology with Alienware, Acer, Huawei and MSI,” said Oscar Werner, president of Tobii Tech. "If 2016 was an indicator of the growing interest in eye tracking, it’s only the beginning; 2017 is going to be an even more interesting year for Tobii.”

At CES, Tobii will discuss its leadership in the following areas:

Virtual Reality

2017 will be the year that Tobii, in partnership with manufacturers and developers, will bring consumer-grade foveated rendering technology to both VR and PC gaming devices. Removing one of the greatest barriers to the widespread adoption of consumer VR, foveated rendering significantly enhances graphics performance while reducing GPU demands, bringing consumers closer to untethered and more immersive VR experiences. With over eight years of wearable eye tracking expertise, a full scale, in-house VR R&D team and the world’s largest eye tracking patent portfolio, Tobii has both the technological acumen and operational flexibility to deliver industry leading innovations for VR.

Beyond this major milestone, Tobii is innovating in other key areas of eye tracking for VR, including social cues, character interaction and dynamic content. Most recently, the company announced its participation in the Khronos Group VR Standards Initiative with industry leaders Oculus VR, Google VR, Valve and NVIDIA as well as plans to invest $50M in its own large scale VR and smartphone initiatives.

Personal Computing

Unveiled today, the Acer Aspire V 17 Nitro is the world’s first general consumer notebook with integrated eye tracking. Through the use of dynamic multitasking features like ‘Touch at Gaze’ and ‘App Switcher,’ eye tracking creates smoother workflows and easier navigation between apps. For example, with ‘Touch at Gaze’, users only need to place their finger on the precision touchpad (PTP) and the mouse pointer appears in the area they want it. When users scroll the computer will know what window to scroll in automatically, since you are already looking at it.

Smartphones

Tobii has also made its first mobile integration with Huawei’s Honor Magic smartphone. Announced in December and only available in China, the device uses Tobii EyeCore algorithms and a near infrared camera to acquire information on the user’s presence and attention, making it more responsive and intuitive. With a user facing intelligent sensor, the Honor Magic has greater insight into the user’s intention and is better able to accommodate their actions. A first step in the mobile category, Tobii is exploring additional applications and use cases for eye tracking in smartphones.

PC Gaming

As it continues its aggressive expansion in PC Gaming, Tobii will also debut two new major eye tracking titles, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Dying Light at CES 2017. Now available in over 45 titles at TobiiGaming.com including, WATCH_DOGS 2, Steep, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Tom Clancy’s The Division and Elite: Dangerous several new eye tracking enhanced games are added monthly. Tobii expects 100 eye tracking enhanced games by the end of 2017, including several more upcoming AAA titles.

These titles provide gamers greater immersion through a steadily growing number of gaming devices, suiting a wide variety of gamer preferences, including peripherals: Tobii EyeX, Tobii Eye Tracker 4C and SteelSeries Sentry; gaming notebooks: Alienware 17, Predator 21X and MSI GT72; and monitors: Predator Z271T, XB251HQT and XB271HUT.

"Founded over fifteen years ago with the vision of an eye tracker in every computer, we’re very happy to bring our tech to a wider array of consumer markets and continue our position as the clear market leader,” continued Werner.

Visit Tobii to go hands-on with its latest eye tracking product at CES 2017 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 2, Booth 26602.

About Tobii

Tobii is the global leader in eye-tracking. Our vision is a world where all technology works in harmony with natural human behavior. Tobii operates through three business units: Tobii Tech develops Tobii’s technology for volume markets such as computer games, personal computers, virtual reality and mobile. Tobii Dynavox makes specially designed computers that are controlled by eye movement or touch screens for use by people with special needs due to spinal cord injuries, CP, ALS or other medical conditions. Tobii Pro develops and sells eye-tracking equipment and services used today by more than 3,000 companies and 2,000 research institutions, including all of the world’s 50 highest ranked universities. Tobii is headquartered in Sweden and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (TOBII). The group has around 700 employees. For more information, please visit www.tobii.com.

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