Towards Attention-aware Foveated Rendering

TL;DR

This paper introduces an attention-aware contrast sensitivity model for foveated rendering, demonstrating that peripheral sensitivity decreases with focused attention, enabling significant bandwidth savings in VR/AR displays.

Contribution

It presents the first model incorporating visual attention into contrast sensitivity for foveated rendering, supported by user studies and analysis.

Findings

Peripheral sensitivity drops with focused attention on the fovea

Higher tolerance for foveation when users concentrate on a task

Potential for significant bandwidth savings in VR/AR displays

Abstract

Foveated graphics is a promising approach to solving the bandwidth challenges of immersive virtual and augmented reality displays by exploiting the falloff in spatial acuity in the periphery of the visual field. However, the perceptual models used in these applications neglect the effects of higher-level cognitive processing, namely the allocation of visual attention, and are thus overestimating sensitivity in the periphery in many scenarios. Here, we introduce the first attention-aware model of contrast sensitivity. We conduct user studies to measure contrast sensitivity under different attention distributions and show that sensitivity in the periphery drops significantly when the user is required to allocate attention to the fovea. We motivate the development of future foveation models with another user study and demonstrate that tolerance for foveation in the periphery is significantly higher when the user is concentrating on a task in the fovea. Analysis of our model predicts significant bandwidth savings over those afforded by current models. As such, our work forms the foundation for attention-aware foveated graphics techniques.