Choosing the right tracking technology
Hand and eye tracking solutions represent one of the most significant innovations in the XR space. Designed to boost the immersive experience of stepping into extended reality, these tools make the process of interacting with virtual content feel more natural.
On its own, the gesture recognition market is expected to reach a value of $70.18 billion by 2030, while the eye tracking market is expected to grow at a rate of 22.4% from 2022 to 2030. The question for companies leveraging the power of XR for training, innovation, and collaboration, is how do you choose the right hand and eye tracking tech?
Let’s look at some of the most important points you’ll need to consider when buying XR solutions with embedded hand and eye tracking features in 2022.
Step 1: Set Your XR Goals
The first step in choosing the right hand and eye tracking solutions for your business needs, is setting some goals. Tracking technologies can serve a range of purposes in the corporate landscape. You could use your eye tracking technology to improve the security of your collaborative environment, with biometric scanning for everyone who uses a headset.
Another option could be to enhance the way your teams collaborate. With hand and eye tracking solutions built into VR, it’s easier for teams to interact with virtual content like digital twins. Teams can even use the same technology to enhance their training experiences, develop muscle memories, and learn new skills. Some of the goals you might set include:
- Improved insights: Hand and eye tracking solutions can help you to collect all kinds of data. You can gather useful insights into how your employees interact with virtual content to improve training opportunities. Alternatively, you might collect information about your customers, looking at how they interact with products and building insights into sentiment.
- Better technology efficiency: Certain tracking tools in the XR landscape can help to make your tools more efficient. Solutions like foveated rendering, for instance, reduce GPU load and power consumption significantly. By focusing on enhancing a specific portion of a virtual image, rather than the whole experience, you reduce business costs.
- Deeper immersion: One of the biggest benefits of both hand and eye tracking technologies, is the potential to create more immersive experiences. If you want the XR environment to feel completely natural to your employees during work and training sessions, the right tracking solutions can help significantly.
Step 2: Learn about the Tracking Landscape
Once you know what you want to accomplish with your eye and hand tracking technology, the next step is learning about the different tools on offer to help you achieve your goals. Both eye and hand tracking tech come in a range of different flavors.
Most eye tracking technology uses near-infrared solutions and high-resolution cameras to track gaze direction. The underlying concept is known as “PCCR”, or Pupil Center Corneal Reflection. Eye tracking devices can also come in different designs. Screen-based solutions are built into glasses and headsets, while webcam and remote tracking is a slightly more old-fashioned alternatively.
The functionality of your hand tracking technology can also differ depending on the kind of tools you choose. Most solutions start with sensors which are either attached to your headset, or placed in locations around the user. These tools capture information using cameras, while software in the XR environment makes sense of your movements.
If you’re not sure what kind of hand and eye tracking solutions are best for your needs, it’s worth chatting to a leader at an XR business for more insights. Many vendors will be able to give you a run-down of how their technology works. More importantly, they should be able to provide demonstrations so you can get a feel for the solution.
Step 3: Consider Whether AR, MR, or VR is Best
Based on your use cases, and your knowledge of hand and eye tracking solutions, you’ll be able to decide what kind of XR innovation makes the most sense for your needs. VR solutions with hand and eye tracking are generally more likely to appeal to companies looking to improve collaboration.
With VR experiences featuring both eye and hand tracking technologies, you can make it easier for team members to interact with both virtual content, and eachother. Some tools will even improve the bonding potential between team members by recreating facial expressions, and making the overall interaction feel more human.
AR and MR solutions will appeal to scenarios where your team members need to connect with both the physical world, and virtual content at the same time. Engineers who need to be able to flip through virtual manuals hands-free while working on a machine will benefit from MR innovations.
AR tools with eye tracking technology can make it easier to feed video information back to specialists in an office environment from employees in the field. This can allow for the delivery of useful guidance in real-time.
Step 4: Prioritize a Customisable User Experience
Finally, it’s worth remembering the needs of each individual user and company are likely to vary when it comes to hand and eye tracking in XR. The right solution for your needs should be perfectly suited for the kind of use cases you’re trying to address.
For instance, you might want to look for a VR headset with all the tracking systems you need already built into the headset itself, to reduce the amount of additional sensors you need to set up in a small office space.
You may need to consider the comfort of your employees if they’re going to be using your XR innovations for extended periods of time. A flexible and lightweight headset will likely allow for more comfortable working experiences, particularly for employees on the move.
Many vendors will be able to discuss your needs with you and offer customizable solutions with software and hardware elements you can tweak to suit your requirements. Take the time to discuss your requirements with each vendor before you start investing.
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