Gaze

In our PC/laptop, we use a mouse to move a cursor. Gaze is the mouse for the HoloLens. Gaze is one form of input for HoloLens, which indicates where the user is currently looking. Similar to the mouse cursor, in Holographic apps as well we use an indicator to show the direction of the Gaze. The cursor follows the user's head moving in real space.

To determine the point where the user is currently focusing on, each frame does a raycast into the physical space and places the cursor on the object where the raycast intersects with the objects. Even if the user is moving, HoloLens still raycasts for each frame and thus maintains the focus. All the data for the raycast is captured by the sensors and IMU helps in tracking the user movement.

The following figure show how the Gaze object changes based on the user's head movement from one to another object.

The cursor indicates the Gaze direction for any holographic application and can also indicate which item can be gazed and which cannot.