KITCHENER — A local startup that has developed the world's first eye-tracking technology that does not rely on cameras has raised US$4.6 million in funding less than two years after it was founded.

Intel Capital, the investment arm of technology giant Intel, is the lead investor in the funding round, AdHawk Microsystems announced Thursday. Montreal-based Brightspark Ventures and the startup's founders also participated in the funding.

AdHawk's eye-tracking technology is so sensitive it captures involuntary movement of the eye. It is tiny, lightweight and consumes very little power. The technology is expected to open up new opportunities in several fields, including virtual reality, augmented reality, medical diagnostics and human-computer interactions.

Until now, eye-tracking technology relied on cameras. The cameras needed direct connections to powerful computers. The technology was not mobile.

Neil Sarkar, AdHawk's chief executive officer and an award-winning electrical engineer at the University of Waterloo, led the design and development of the computer chip that is at the core of the Kitchener startup's groundbreaking technology.

The chip has the ability to detect movements of less than one-billionth of a metre.

"There are actually sensors in there that can pick up the forces between single atoms," said Sarkar.

While technology is powerful, it is also straightforward. A tiny light-emitting diode is attached to the eyeglass frame next to the wearer's nose. It emits infrared light thousands of times a second in bursts of 15 microwatts.

These light-emitting diodes are called VCSELs — vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. They are 20 microns long or .0008 inches. The latest iPhone uses VCSELs for its face-scanning and recognition technology.

That infrared light from the VCSEL is invisible to the human eye, but it tracks every twitch, reflex, blink or change of direction in the eye. A photo sensor is attached to the glass frame on the other side of the eye.

"A beam will come out of this side and scan across your eye, and this side will pick up when a pulse reflects off your cornea," said Sarkar. "And that is happening thousands of times a second."

The software developed by AdHawk translates that information into graphics on a computer monitor. It also predicts where the eye is going to move next. Game developers could use that information to add surprise features.

Knowing where a user's eyes will move in 50 milliseconds can make for more efficient use of computer power, resolving images just before viewers need them.

AdHawk's technology can be quickly installed into a virtually reality headset. It snaps into place around one lens inside a headset, and a wire is plugged into the headset's computer processor. All major headset makers will soon have access to the technology.

"We are launching our evaluation kits for our headset manufacturing customers in November," said Sandro Banerjee, AdHawk's chief operating officer.

"What we have found is that state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology today has not made it into any headsets because of size and power consumption," said Sarkar. "We are hoping our eye-tracker makes it in."

That market is big and growing. More than five million VR/AR headsets were sold in the last year. Sales are predicted to increase to 20 million a year by 2021.

AdHawk's technology can continually collect data that can be wirelessly uploaded to a database. That data can be used to diagnose some forms of dementia, concussions and other diseases and conditions.

The technology also creates new avenues for human-computer interactions, said Sarkar, because eye movements are directly related to emotions. Eyes move differently when someone is happy, sad, stressed or tired. The technology could be used to monitor the attention levels of drivers or pilots.

The startup says the technology also can be used with smartwatches. When you type text on a smartwatch, your finger blocks the entire screen. AdHawk's technology creates an electrical field in front of the watch face. A finger moving within that field, but never touching the watch, can type of messages, or select new functions.

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A chef with greasy fingers could use AdHawk technology to flip through a recipe on an iPad without ever touching the screen. It could also be used to assess reactions to movies and commercials.

"Let's say you are watching a movie with 20 other people and you had the eye-tracker on — we would know what part of the movie was really immersive, what made people happy, what make people sad," said Sarkar.

AdHawk has 10 founders. The team came out of a research project at UW that built an atomic force microscope using a type of integrated circuit called a CMOS sensor.