Virtual Reality(VR) was the latest and greatest concept of 2016, but Christmas shopping reports of 2016 saw that the VR industry underperformed its predictions. Because VR is still in its infancy, many companies, who have lagged behind, are scrambling to make more realistic content for users to provide the best possible experiences. But let's face it, in VR every detail counts to make an experience perfect. That's why SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) has introduced it's newest product to the VR market; the SMI Social Eye. A concept powered by SMI eye tracking which enables true human connection between avatars in virtual worlds through expressive, accurate eye contact.
In any face-to-face situation, non-verbal communication is believed to account for around half of all communication between participants - and eye contact is the largest single component of that. It is of particular importance in VR, where social interaction is not direct but mediated through avatars. The SMI Social Eye provides a breakthrough solution by accurately tracking the gaze of the wearer of the VR HMD (head mounted display) and animating the eyes of the avatar in real time. Virtual characters can gaze, blink, wink and show pupillary reactions to acknowledge others, express their feelings or simply make a point.
The Social Eye offers all relevant parameters and degrees of animation as well as a wide range of abstraction layers for the graphical representation. This is important in order to adapt the degree of realism of an avatar to the overall social and graphical context.
Better eye-to-eye connection between human representations such as avatars is key to overcoming the 'Uncanny Valley' - the concept developed in the 1970s that human replicas arouse revulsion among human beings as they become more lifelike. The Uncanny Valley - our deepest negative emotional response to these characters - gives way to a more positive response as the avatar attains human-to-human empathy levels.
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