Google files patent for eye-tracking system that reads expressions for VR

Google may one day make our virtual avatars more expressive by tracking our eyes. This is according to a patent published last week in which the company details a system for “Classifying Facial Expressions Using Eye-Tracking Cameras.” According to the description, the method uses “one or more eye tracking sensors implemented into one or more head mounted devices.”

Eye-tracking is thought to be one of the next big things for VR, though that’s largely because an accurate, reliable system will enable foveated rendering, which only fully renders the area of a screen the user is directly looking at. Google, however, wants to use an algorithm to scan a user’s expression in real-time and then translate that into a virtual expression on their avatar.