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Eye-dominance-guided Foveated Rendering

Xiaoxu Meng
Amitabh Varshney
IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 26 (2020), pp. 1972-1980

Abstract

Optimizing rendering performance is critical for a wide variety of virtual reality (VR) applications. Foveated rendering is emerging as an indispensable technique for reconciling interactive frame rates with ever-higher head-mounted display resolutions. Here, we present a simple yet effective technique for further reducing the cost of foveated rendering by leveraging ocular dominance -- the tendency of the human visual system to prefer scene perception from one eye over the other. Our new approach, eye-dominance-guided foveated rendering (EFR), renders the scene at a lower foveation level (higher detail) for the dominant eye compared to the non-dominant eye. Compared with traditional foveated rendering, EFR can be expected to provide superior rendering performance while preserving the same level of perceived visual quality.