Google to buy MEMS eye tracking startup for $115m
Google is reported to be on the verge of buying Canadian eye tracking startup Adhawk Microsystems for its MEMS-based technology in a deal worth $115m.
The deal, reported by Bloomberg, hints at Goggle returning to the smart glasses market with its AI without the need for a CMOS image sensor and image processing to track eye movements. The company has been developing a revised design for smart glasses over the last few years after its trials of the Google Glass technology.
Instead, Adhawk’s technology combines a customised MEMES mirror with an infrared source and optics in a multichip module that weighs 37g. This can be swept at 250Hz for the wireless version and 500Hz for tethered, with a 12 hour battery life.
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The MEMS scanner has been used in the MindLink evaluation glasses which works with a range of operating systems and tracks eye gaze and pupil size with a 4ms latency. The feed from the eye tracker is fused with data from a camera for analysis by AI models and the PsychoPy neurological libraries.
“Eye tracking is the eyes and ears of AI assistants,” says Adhawk in Waterloo, Ontario. The company has raised $22m in fudning and $17m in grants since it was founded in 2017, “When eye tracking is combined with other sensors like a camera and microphone, our system provides the most accurate facsimile of human perception to an AI assistant. We highlight gaze in a world-facing camera feed while also capturing the user’s mental state. This allows an AI assistant to provide relevant and useful guidance at the right time,” it says.
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