foveated

Foveated refers to anything related to the fovea centralis, the small pit in the retina responsible for sharp central vision. In vision science and display technology, the term describes strategies that exploit the fact that visual acuity declines with eccentricity from the point of gaze. Foveated approaches seek to allocate more sampling, resolution, or bandwidth to the region where the viewer is looking, and reduce resources in the periphery.

One common application is foveated rendering, used in virtual reality, augmented reality, and computer graphics. With eye tracking, the renderer maintains a high-resolution pixel region around the gaze point while progressively lowering detail toward the edges of the image. This can substantially reduce computational load and memory bandwidth without substantially affecting perceived image quality, enabling higher frame rates or more complex shading.

Foveation is also applied in imaging and video systems through gaze-contingent or foveated displays and compression. In such systems, the display or encoder adaptively allocates bits or resolution based on gaze information to preserve perceptual quality where it matters most. Perceptual models may account for factors like motion, chromatic aberration, and temporal integration.

Challenges include latency in eye tracking, prediction errors in gaze, and perceptual artifacts at transition zones between high- and low-resolution regions. The effectiveness depends on perceptual thresholds, content type, and user adaptation. Ongoing research seeks to refine models, reduce latency, and broaden applications in consumer and professional displays.