When I got one of Tobii's eye-tracking devices a few years ago, I didn't know what to do with it. Tobii bills itself as "the world leader in eye tracking," and as far as I could tell the claim rang true. The device certainly worked, and I could see it being very useful for people who (for any number of reasons) can't use a keyboard and mouse. But Tobii clearly wanted to broaden its ambitions and turn eye-tracking into a more mass-market solution, not an alternate means of interfacing with PCs but a primary means. Ubisoft builds Tobii support into all its games, and I played Assassin's Creed: Rogue with Tobii's eye-tracker swinging the camera wherever I looked.

That means future head-mounted displays (HMDs) based on Qualcomm's standalone headset kit will feature more efficient foveated rendering. Since they can tell where you're looking, they'll be able to dedicate most of their graphics power to make that part of the experience as sharp and clear as possible. They can even downgrade graphics on parts of the screen you're not looking at, which could lead to systems with lower specs and lower price tags. Eye tracking will also make experiences more personal and interactive. Avatars and in-game characters could look at you when you look at them, which could make interactions in VR social networks much more enjoyable.

Eyefluence is one of many eye-tracking tech startups that is working on a way for a user of VR or AR headsets to navigate through a series of options using just your eyes. SAN FRANCISCO – The next big leap for virtual and augmented reality headsets is likely to be eye-tracking, where headset-mounted laser beams aimed at eyeballs turn your peepers into a mouse. A number of startups are working on this tech, with an aim to convince VR gear manufacturers such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive to incorporate the feature in a next generation device. They include SMI, Percept, Eyematic, Fove and Eyefluence, which recently allowed USA TODAY to demo its eye-tracking tech. "Eye-tracking is almost guaranteed to be in second-generation VR headsets," says Will Mason, cofounder of virtual reality media company UploadVR.