The FOVE480 is a hand-modified retrofit of the FOVE 0. The eye tracking cameras and electronics have been replaced with very high end cameras that can achieve 480fps.
Since it it is not mass produced, we only make it in small batches, designed for research institutions intending to look at microsaccades and other biological markers that happen at high frequency.
It is not suitable for commercialization, but is suitable for research, and clinical trials. The tech built into FOVE480, both hardware and software will form the basis of our next mass production model, which is scheduled to begin development at the end of 2023.
Since it is a retrofit, it has mostly similar specs to the FOVE 0. So first, let’s list the FOVE 0 specs.
FOVE 0 Specs
Weight: 520g
Connections to tethered PC
HDMI 1.4 (tethered PC should have an HDMI port without)
USB 3.0 (power, camera/gyro/accelerator data and hardware control commands)
USB 2.0 (optional, only if using position tracking)
Screen
70hz WQHD OLED, 2560x1440 (1280x1440 per eye)
Rendering at 3584x2016 (due to higher pixel density in center after lens distortion)
Fixed 63mm IPD
FOV: 90-100, 95 typical
Eye Tracking
120hz infrared 850nm eye tracker, cornea based (with pupil-based fallback)
Tracking accuracy: 1.15° median accuracy for uniform distribution across screen (<1 degree in center)
Eye Position Feedback to help with poor mounting
Support for glasses if present, but only small glasses fit in the headset
Tracked Data
Stereo Gaze Vectors (screen coordinates or normalized 3D vectors)
Convergence Gaze Vector & Distance
Scene Aware System (increases accuracy and does hit testing, if the client supplies scene data)
User Presence (headset is mounted or not)_
Eye Open/Close State & Blink Count
Left/right eye Images (320x240 each)
Stereo Eye Torsion
Stereo Eyelid Shape
Stereo Pupil Radius
Stereo Iris Radius
Stereo Eyeball Radius
IOD/IPD Measurement
Saccade detection
Details on all fields (and sample data) here
All data can be accessed simultaneously
Calibration
Smooth Pursuit Calibration (high accuracy, 10s)
Single Point Calibration (decent accuracy, 2s)
Torsion measurement requires additional 2s calibration
Eye-by-eye Calibration
Calibration UI Skinning
Please note that our basic (free) plan only has convergence gaze vectors and open/close state, all other fields require FOVE Pro or Enterprise.
3-DOF Orientation Tracking with internal IMU (1000hz exposed to clients)
6-DOF Position Tracking (optional)
Uses external infrared camera that is typically monitor-mounted
Works within about 1-3 meters of the camera, designed for sitting experiences (cockpit VR experience, etc)
Should be used indoors as infrared from the sun can interfere
System Requirements
Windows 8/10/11 (requires NVIDIA or AMD graphics, Intel GPUs are not supported)
Ubuntu 20.04 (requires NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver)
Laptops should
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 oir higher.
Intel Core i5-4590 or equivalent or better
Memory: 8gb or more
Please note that depending on your application you may need higher specs.
And here are the FOVE480 specs:
FOVE480 Specs
Connections to tethered PC
HDMI 1.4 (same as FOVE 0)
USB 3.0 (same as FOVE 0, except no camera data is sent)
USB 3.0 (receives power, sends high framerate eye images)
Eye Tracking
Same data as FOVE 0, except all ET data comes at 483hz instead of 120hz. Camera resolution is also the same.
Face rest is redesigned to fit more glasses, face cushion also more easily sanitizable.
3-DOF orientation tracking: Same as FOVE 0
6-DOF position tracking: Removed to fit new ET components, if 6-DOF is needed than a third party tracking system must be used.
System Requirements
Same as FOVE 0 Except:
Higher power CPU is required to handle 480hz eye tracking (exact min spec TBD)
Recommended to not use a USB hub, and to limit USB peripherals because the high speed camera requires most of the USB bandwidth
Ubuntu not currently supported (ask if needed)
Size and Shape
Similar to FOVE0 but there's a ~2cm front extension to enclose new electronics that drive the high frame rate cameras.
Color changed from White to Black.
Marginally more than the FOVE 0, final number TBD.
The development environment is effectively the same for FOVE 0 and FOVE480:
Fully independent and lightweight VR Platform from the ground-up (no SteamVR, etc)
Both the VR and EyeTracking sides are programmable via our FOVE SDK
Bindings for C, C++, .NET (C# etc)
Rendering:
Windows: DirectX11 (recommended) or OpenGL
Linux: OpenGL (recommended) or Vukan
Limited data-only bindings for Python (no rendering)
Open Source Unity Plugin (most popular dev environment)
Unreal Engine 4 & 5 plugins
FOVE's msi Windows installer can be embedded into your installer for easily bundling and deployment.