Eye Tracking for AR Car Dashboard (Patented)
This project was a collaboration between the research team at IISc, India's premier research institute, and Faurecia, a leading automotive technology company. As a researcher at the CPDM lab, I worked on designing and prototyping an AR-based car head-up display that utilizes eye tracking for interaction.
The concept aimed to redefine in-car interfaces by creating a futuristic, intuitive way for drivers to interact with vehicle controls. Using the Tobii eye tracker, I developed two prototypes for the AR dashboard: one with a camera-based background that simulated an AR experience and another using a reflective, mirrored screen to project the interface as an actual AR display.
I collaborated with my professor to design interface icons that remained legible against a camera-based background, ensuring clear visibility in different lighting conditions. For interaction, I developed the system using C# and integrated it with the Tobii eye tracker, allowing users to control dashboard elements seamlessly through eye movement.
Developing this state-of-the-art product came with numerous challenges, but as a designer, my primary concern was ensuring the visibility of interface icons against the ever-changing background of the windshield—or more precisely, the dynamic road view in front of the driver. Since the background was not static, the icons needed to remain clear and legible under varying lighting and motion conditions.
To address this challenge, I developed a dynamic background adaptation algorithm that adjusted the icon colors based on the brightness of the road ahead. This significantly improved legibility, ensuring a seamless user experience. The effectiveness of this design led to its publication as a separate conference paper, alongside a patent and a journal article on multimodal interactions.
