Is eye tracking required for foveated imaging to be useful?
Some of the most promising applications of foveated imaging do not require eye tracking. Any pointing device, such as a mouse or a touch pad, can be used to control the foveation. The list of useful applications for mouse-controlled foveation includes video teleconferencing, video surveillance, telenavigation, telemedicine, and image data base retrieval. Whenever there is a limited bandwidth for communication, mouse-controlled foveated imaging provides a simple method for the viewer to direct high resolution to regions of interest. Consider being confronted with the choice between two nearly equivalent video communications systems. Suppose both systems send video with equal resolution, at the same frame rate, in a non-foveation mode. However, suppose the second system gives the viewer the option of switching to a foveation mode where spatial resolution can be dynamically increased in regions of interest without affecting frame rate, or alternatively, where the frame rate can be increas
