Use the other eye when the tracker loses one, and add a headset fit check

SteamVR's combined gaze keeps going on one eye, but it holds the lost
eye's yaw, so the gaze moves half as far sideways as the eyes do.
ft-gaze now reads each eye's tracking uncertainty and raw measurement
from eye-server.mmap. When the tracker loses an eye, ft-gazed takes the
gaze from the other one, plus the offset that eye usually shows
against both, learned while both are seen. On a recording, one eye
alone came out a median 0.8 degrees from both eyes' gaze.

Glances down at the keyboard, past every screen, aren't sent. The
pointer stays put, and eyes lost there don't count as lost.

The gaze probe gets a Headset fit mode. It shows per-eye tracking,
openness and confidence, maps where each eye gets lost, gives hints,
and has a guided check. The settings app opens it from the Gaze page
and shows how often each eye is lost. The probe can also test each eye
alone, and its side panel now collapses to a title bar so the dot
isn't hidden behind it.

Snapping to UI elements is deferred; the mouse drag is the correction.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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DeeJanuzandClaude Opus 5.5 committed 2026-09-28 22:07:41 -06:00
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@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ gaze/ft-gazectl on # the pointer follows your gaze (off: the mouse al
Gaze as an input method for the whole desktop, without replacing anything of SteamVR's:
- `ft-gazed` (host Python, a user service: `gaze/run.sh install`) runs ft-gaze and corrects its gaze. It uses SteamVR's combined gaze (mmap set 1), which keeps going when the tracker loses one eye; set 2's combined direction is off by half of whatever the lost eye reads, and the tracker does lose an eye for minutes at a time. It drops blinks (both eyes closing), smooths with a fixation lock, and applies the calibration from the probe (`calibration.json`, reloaded when the probe changes it) plus what the pointer has learned since (`pointer-lessons.json`). It sends the result to the pointer helper 90 times a second. It follows SteamVR's eye tracking log, and when the headset goes back on (SteamVR starts its eye model over, and the error moves), older lessons count less, so the first few after relearn the offset.
- `ft-gazed` (host Python, a user service: `gaze/run.sh install`) runs ft-gaze and corrects its gaze. It uses SteamVR's combined gaze (mmap set 1). When the tracker loses one eye (its variance for that eye jumps from about 0.001 to 0.02), the gaze comes from the other eye instead: that eye's own reading (set 2) plus what it usually reads against the combined gaze, learned while both eyes are seen, in 10 degree cells of where it looks. Set 1 keeps going on one eye too, but it holds the lost eye's yaw where it was, so the gaze moves half as far sideways as your eyes do. On a recording, one eye alone came out a median 0.8 degrees from both eyes' gaze over a steady look, a little more jittery. Looks down past the screens (under 20 degrees down, on no Frametop screen: a glance at the keyboard) aren't sent, so the pointer stays where it was instead of following you down, and eyes lost there aren't counted. It drops blinks (both eyes closing or lost), smooths with a fixation lock, and applies the calibration from the probe (`calibration.json`, reloaded when the probe changes it) plus what the pointer has learned since (`pointer-lessons.json`). It sends the result to the pointer helper 90 times a second. It follows SteamVR's eye tracking log, and when the headset goes back on (SteamVR starts its eye model over, and the error moves), older lessons count less, so the first few after relearn the offset.
- The pointer helper's **gaze mode** (off by default: the Gaze page of Frametop Input Settings, `gaze/ft-gazectl on`, `POINTER_GAZE=1` in `~/.config/frametop.conf`, or a mouse or controller button mapped to "Gaze pointer on/off") works like MAGIC pointing (Zhai et al., 1999). The pointer goes where you look. Move the mouse and it's the mouse's, from where the gaze put it, for the last bit. Look well away (5 degrees) and the gaze takes it back. A press isn't sent at once: the pointer stops where the gaze put it, and if that's wrong, drag it onto what you meant with the button still held; the click happens where you let go. To drag something, hold the press still for half a second first (`POINTER_GAZE_HOLD`), then move. Outside games the pointer stays on while gaze mode is on. The dot only shows while the mouse moves it, while a press is held, and as a pulse when you click.
- **Learning from nudges:** if the mouse took the pointer from the gaze and moved it a little (0.2 to 8 degrees) before you clicked, or you dragged a held press that far, you were nudging it onto what you looked at. The helper sends that as a lesson, from the raw gaze when the mouse took over to where you clicked, and ft-gazed learns it. So using it is what calibrates it. One lesson moves the whole correction by only a third of what it measured (more near where it was taken), since in the first live test one 6 degree lesson moved everything and put the next target 7 degrees off. `ft-gazectl status` shows the lessons, and `ft-gazectl forget` drops them.
- Nothing writes to SteamVR, its eye tracker, or its files: ft-gaze maps the eye tracker's shared memory read-only. With no fresh gaze (a blink, the service stopped, the headset off), the pointer stays where it is, and the mouse works as always.
@@ -30,13 +30,20 @@ Lessons are logged to `pointer-lessons.jsonl`: the raw gaze, the true direction,
| Source | Where it comes from |
| --- | --- |
| SteamVR action | An `eyetracking` action bound to `/user/head/eyetracking` (`actions/`), read with `IVRInput::GetEyeTrackingDataRelativeToNow`. This is the supported way. |
| mmap set 1, set 2 | `/dev/shm/eye-server.mmap`, which SteamVR's eyetracking process writes for the HMD driver (`driver_cv.so`). It has two sets of per-eye directions in head space. The layout is undocumented (offsets are in `ft-gaze.cpp`) and may change with a SteamVR update. ft-gaze maps it read-only; the file also carries calibration clicks to the tracker and must never be written. |
| mmap set 1, set 2 | `/dev/shm/eye-server.mmap`, which SteamVR's eyetracking process writes for the HMD driver (`driver_cv.so`). It has two sets of per-eye directions in head space: set 1 is filtered, and its two eyes always share one pitch; set 2 is each eye's own reading. After each set come the tracker's variances for each eye, and at the end each eye's raw measurement and its variance (the tracker's confidence in that frame), which ft-gaze passes on for the fit check. |
| Left eye, right eye | Each eye alone, from set 2: calibrate and test them to see what one eye is worth against both. The layout is undocumented (offsets are in `ft-gaze.cpp`) and may change with a SteamVR update. ft-gaze maps it read-only; the file also carries calibration clicks to the tracker and must never be written. |
The tracker stops when the headset is off your head. SteamVR also calibrates gaze on its own from laser-mouse clicks, treating each click as a spot you were looking at. That includes mouse clicks through the Frametop pointer, so a click where the pointer's dot isn't what you're looking at teaches SteamVR a wrong sample (it only takes clicks within 5 degrees of your gaze). In the probe, use Enter or Space as the trigger: keys don't go through SteamVR's laser. See `Accept usercal` in `~/.local/share/Steam/logs/eyetracking.txt`.
The tracker stops when the headset is off your head. SteamVR also calibrates gaze on its own from laser-mouse clicks, treating each click as a spot you were looking at. That includes mouse clicks through the Frametop pointer, so a click where the pointer's dot isn't what you're looking at teaches SteamVR a wrong sample (it only takes clicks within 5 degrees of your gaze). In the probe, use Enter or Space as the trigger: keys don't go through SteamVR's laser. See `Accept usercal` in `~/.local/share/Steam/logs/eyetracking.txt`. When the tracker loses an eye, the same log says `CEyePoseUKF L: Large dt` (or `R`) as it starts that eye over.
## Headset fit
The probe's Headset fit mode (Check headset fit on the Gaze page, or `ft-gazeprobe --mode fit`) shows, for each eye, whether the tracker has it, how open it is, and the tracker's confidence in it, and a map of where you looked coloured by how often it lost that eye there. Hints under the maps say which eye gets lost where, and what to try. Enter runs a guided check: dots around the screen, then looking down at the keyboard, up, left and right. R starts over. Adjust the headset while you watch it.
Losing an eye is usually about where you look, not the tracker. On this Frame the left eye was lost 57 to 64 % of the time looking 30 to 50 degrees down (at the keyboard) and the right eye never; at screen height both were seen over 98 % of the time. Looking down, the lids come down over the eyes. That's harmless, since the gaze service ignores looks down past the screens: they show on the maps, but not in the counts or as a problem.
## Probe
The trigger is Enter, Space, or a mouse button. Right-click anywhere in the window (or press the Menu key or Shift+F10) for a menu with Run calibration, Start accuracy test, Calibrate from last test, Reset calibration, the modes, the panel, fullscreen, and Quit. The buttons at the top right show and hide the panel, leave fullscreen, and quit. The keys do the same (Tab, F11, Esc), but only after you click the window once, since Frametop sends typing to the panel you clicked last. If ft-gaze stops, the probe starts it again after 3 s and shows why it stopped. Windowed mode stays on the screen it was on, and a small KWin script tells the probe where the window is, so the dot and targets are still in the right place.
The trigger is Enter, Space, or a mouse button. Right-click anywhere in the window (or press the Menu key or Shift+F10) for a menu with Run calibration, Start accuracy test, Calibrate from last test, Reset calibration, the modes, the panel, fullscreen, and Quit. The buttons at the top right show and hide the panel, leave fullscreen, and quit. The arrow in the panel's title bar collapses it to just that bar, so the dot and targets behind it stay visible; the collapsed bar stays through tests. The keys do the same (Tab, C, F11, Esc), but only after you click the window once, since Frametop sends typing to the panel you clicked last. If ft-gaze stops, the probe starts it again after 3 s and shows why it stopped. Windowed mode stays on the screen it was on, and a small KWin script tells the probe where the window is, so the dot and targets are still in the right place.
- **Run calibration (start here):** the initial calibration, modeled on Apple Vision Pro's eye setup. Face the centre and keep your head still. Look at one dot and press the trigger, then at each of six dots in a circle. That happens in three rounds, and the screen goes dark, then medium, then bright, because pupil size changes with brightness and the tracker's error with it. Each round turns the ring 20 degrees, and the middle round's ring is half the size, so the 21 dots cover the middle, halfway out, and the edge of your view. The ring's size is `Calibration ring` (degrees, 20 by default, less if the window is too small). Error grows toward the edge, and the calibration can only correct as far out as it has seen dots. The current dot is a bright pulsing dot with a point in the middle; finished dots fade to specks, so your eyes don't go back to them. Samples from blinks and from moments when the tracker lost an eye are dropped: openness under half of what it was during that look (not a fixed level, because your lids come down when you look down, and you squint in the bright round), or the angle between the eyes jumping more than 1.5 degrees from its median (that angle depends on how far away you're looking, so only a jump counts). Each dot is measured with medians, so one bad sample can't fail it. A look that lands where the gaze was for another dot of the round is refused as a look at the wrong dot. Mouse clicks don't count during a calibration run or a test: use Enter or Space. If a dot still fails, the message says why and the next try listens longer. After two failures, S (or the menu) skips the dot. Every attempt is logged to `calibration-attempts.jsonl`. At the end it fits every source's calibration from all the dots, replacing what it had learned (quadratic if the model was none). Esc cancels. The run is saved as `calibration-*.json`. With "Test after calibration" on (the default), the accuracy test starts right after, on new spots.
- **Free look:** the gaze dot. The trigger calibrates wherever you're looking (see below).