Vision optics with Integrated VCSELs and Autofocal Lenses

The VIVA project aims to develop a novel eye-tracking system for all-day wearable smartglasses. Current smartglasses face limitations in visual interaction, hindering their use in situations requiring full visual attention. Existing eye-tracking technologies, primarily camera-based, suffer from drawbacks like high power consumption, large size, and privacy concerns, making them unsuitable for all-day wearables. VIVA addresses these limitations by utilizing Laser Feedback Interferometry (LFI), a disruptive optical sensing principle. LFI offers significant advantages in power consumption, size, and robustness against varying light conditions, enabling integration into lightweight, aesthetically pleasing smartglasses.

The project's objectives include developing an eye-tracking system with a small form factor (<3x3x3mm³), low weight (<0.2g) low power consumption (<50mW), high sampling rate (>1kHz), and robustness against lighting conditions and slippage. This technology is expected to revolutionize the smartglasses market by enabling hands-free interaction and opening up new application fields in consumer, professional, and healthcare domains. The project addresses key focus areas of the KDT JU Annual Work Plan 2023 and KDT SRIA 2023, including components, modules and system integration; digital society; and health and well-being.

The expected impact of VIVA includes enabling the first all-day wearable smartglasses with eye-tracking, improving user experience and safety, extending independent living for the elderly, and enabling new health applications like automatic correction of presbyopia. By addressing the limitations of current technologies, VIVA is expected to significantly contribute to the growth of the smartglasses and eye-tracking markets, strengthening the EU's position in the competitive technology landscape. The project plans to maximize impact through dissemination in scientific forums, engagement with industrial stakeholders, public outreach, and targeted communication with policymakers. Exploitation plans focus on both individual partner strategies and joint exploitation of commercially viable results. Overall, VIVA aims to drive innovation and market acceptance of this transformative technology, paving the way for widespread adoption and positive societal impact.

During the second project year, the VIVA project progressed from feasibility studies towards an integrated prototype architecture for compact, low-power wearable eye tracking based on advanced photonic sensing technologies.

Main technical and scientific achievements include:

* Definition and refinement of the overall demonstrator architecture, including optical, electronic, mechanical and embedded system concepts for a compact wearable implementation.

* Development and validation of miniaturized photonic sensing components, including VCSEL-based light sources and meta-optical elements suitable for scalable integration and manufacturing.

* Significant progress in system integration and packaging, including compact sensor configurations, miniaturized electronics, wafer-level integration approaches and automated alignment processes.

* Completion of key ASIC and electronics developments enabling dedicated sensor driving, signal acquisition and embedded control functions for the prototype platform.

* Implementation of advanced digital signal-processing methods for distance and motion sensing, together with multibeam gaze-estimation approaches and improved eye modelling.

* Advancement of embedded firmware and data-processing architectures supporting high-speed communication, modular system integration and future AI-enabled processing capabilities.

* Establishment of safety and robustness concepts, including eye-safety validation, low-power operation strategies and improved tolerance against environmental influences and user motion.

* Expansion of validation and benchmarking activities using dedicated laboratory setups, artificial-eye platforms and comparisons with reference eye-tracking systems under realistic test conditions.

The VIVA project continues to demonstrate results beyond the current state of the art in wearable eye-tracking technology by combining Laser Feedback Interferometry (LFI), VCSEL sources and meta-optics into a highly compact and scalable sensing platform.

1. **Miniaturized and lightweight LFI-based eye tracking**
Combining LFI with meta-optical elements enables a significant reduction in size and weight compared to conventional camera-based eye trackers. During the second project year, the system architecture was further optimized towards highly compact multi-beam sensor configurations and integrated packaging concepts suitable for smart-glasses integration and long-term wearable use.

2. **Ambient light robustness**
The coherent sensing principle of LFI provides intrinsic robustness against changing ambient lighting conditions, representing an advantage over conventional video-based approaches. Experimental validation activities further confirmed reliable sensing performance under different environmental conditions.

3. **High sampling-rate potential**
The VIVA sensing approach targets sampling rates above 1 kHz, exceeding the capabilities of many current wearable eye trackers. This enables the detection of fast and subtle eye dynamics, including microsaccades and vergence-related signals, which are relevant for advanced human–machine interaction, cognitive-state estimation and medical applications.

4. **Cost-effective and scalable technology platform**
The project advances a cost-efficient sensing concept by reducing dependence on complex imaging hardware and computationally intensive image processing. During the reporting period, scalable manufacturing approaches for meta-optics and integrated photonic components were further developed, supporting future high-volume production and commercialization potential.

5. **Simplified system integration**
The VIVA sensor concept supports compact electronic integration through dedicated ASIC developments, embedded firmware interfaces and miniaturized packaging approaches. Progress in automated alignment and wafer-level integration further strengthens manufacturability and integration into wearable consumer devices.

6. **Advanced multi-beam sensing architecture**
During the second reporting period, the project demonstrated a refined multi-beam sensing approach enabling broad eye-motion coverage with a reduced number of physical sensors. This contributes to lower system complexity, reduced power consumption and improved suitability for compact wearable platforms.

7. **Integrated photonic and electronic co-design**
A major advancement beyond the state of the art is the close integration of photonics, electronics, signal processing and embedded firmware within a unified system architecture. Dedicated analogue frontend ASICs, embedded processing concepts and compact optical integration were matured towards a prototype-level implementation.

8. **Improved robustness for wearable operation**
The project further advanced robustness against user motion, frame displacement and environmental influences through optimized optical system design, calibration concepts and compact mechanical integration approaches. Safety concepts and low-power operating strategies were also validated in line with wearable-device requirements.

9. **New validation capabilities and application perspectives**
The project established dedicated validation platforms and benchmarking procedures for reproducible evaluation of eye-tracking performance, vergence sensing and cognitive-state-related measurements. Initial results confirmed the feasibility of advanced sensing functionalities beyond conventional gaze tracking, opening opportunities for future applications in XR, driver monitoring, healthcare and cognitive interaction systems.

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - VIVA (Vision optics with Integrated VCSELs and Autofocal Lenses)

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