New headset technology adjusts brightness by tracking pupil dilation

[zohaibahd]

In context: Headsets with heads-up displays have been billed as the next big thing in consumer tech for years, and more recently, even as smartphone replacements. But it's 2024, and they still haven't made a dent in the market. Factors like comfort, battery, and looks aside, another small but significant factor holding things back is eye fatigue from these microdisplays.

Kopin has developed new software called NeuralDisplay that could have your eyes silently thanking you during extended sessions with spatial computing headsets. The technology essentially adds eye-tracking sensors to microdisplays, using custom software to monitor eye movements, pupil dilation, gaze direction, and more. In under half a millisecond, it dynamically adjusts the display brightness and contrast to match your eyes, so it never seems too bright or too dim.

Conventional HUD headsets used in the military, medical field, or other professions typically feature microdisplays with fixed brightness and contrast levels. But your pupils are constantly dilating and constricting based on your emotional state, what you're looking at, and other factors.

For instance, if you get startled and your pupils dilate, that display may suddenly seem overly bright. It's not exactly ideal, especially when you're a fighter pilot in a life-or-death situation.

Kopin CEO Michael Murray told Tom's Hardware that the idea for developing NeuralDisplay originated from this very situation. He met with the Air Force and found that some pilots had trouble keeping their headsets on during battle due to brightness changes.

The company shared an early demo video showing the tech in action. An engineer plays a simple Asteroids game, with graphics visualizing how NeuralDisplay tracks their pupil size (green circle) and gaze point (red circle). As their eyes react, the display seamlessly adjusts without any manual input.

The demo is basic, but Kopin believes the potential implications are huge. The company says NeuralDisplay could eliminate the need for dedicated eye-tracking cameras in many spatial computing systems, reducing size, weight, power consumption, and cost.

Arguably the most advanced headset of its kind on the market, the Apple Vision Pro uses infrared illuminators and cameras to track the user's eyes. But there's no mention of any real-time brightness adjustments based on pupil dilation. If Kopin's technology flies, headsets like the Vision Pro could certainly benefit from it, maybe even shave a few grams off the nearly 650 grams weight.

For now, the NeuralDisplay platform has just entered Alpha testing and the company expects to have finalized headset demos in a few months.

Image credit: Kopin

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New headset technology adjusts brightness by tracking pupil dilation

 

[Endymio]

Perhaps it will work, but in practice it sounds like a bad positive-feedback loop. The strongest factor controlling pupil dilation is ambient light level. This headset reacts to dilation by reducing brightness ... the eye in turn reacts to that by dilating further.

I'm also skeptical that stress-induced dilation is a primary cause of eye fatigue due to the display becoming "too bright". Outdoor ambient light levels on a sunny day are easily 1,000X as bright as any display. Yet -- whether indoors or outdoors -- when we're startled by something and our pupils dilate, does reality suddenly become 'too bright'?

 

[grud81]

Hey Endymio,

Great points about the potential feedback loop and ambient light levels! I was thinking the same thing - if the headset adjusts brightness based on pupil dilation, wouldn't that just cause the pupils to dilate further?

And you're right, outdoor ambient light levels are way brighter than any display. So, it's unlikely that stress-induced dilation is the main cause of eye fatigue due to the display being too bright.

 

[Icysoul]

I don't see the advantage - pupils dilate during high-stress scenarios so that more details from the surroundings are perceived. With the headset dimming the image, this natural advantage of the eye gets nullified.
Besides, how many hours is this headset supposed to be worn, in order for the eye fatigue to be significantly delayed ...?

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I just wear sunglasses, pretty much all the time. From dawn to dusk, sunglasses are on my face otherwise it's too bright for me and hurts my eyes. I even have days I wear my sunglasses inside while at work if I feel like my eyes are starting to hurt.

I walk around the house without turning lights on and it makes the wife mad because she says "it feels like we are living in a cave!"