Foveated image display with high resolution in the eye region
Render only where the eye is actually looking, cheaper everywhere else — the core trick behind every modern foveated-rendering VR headset, patent-free since 2017.
US6252989B1 · — · Expired December 2017
US6252989B1 describes rendering a display at high resolution only in the region the eye is tracked as looking at, with resolution falling off toward the periphery — foveated rendering, the technique that lets VR headsets spend their GPU budget where a wearer's gaze actually resolves detail instead of across the whole frame.
It expired in December 2017 — right as eye-tracked VR headsets were becoming a commercially serious idea rather than a lab demo. The core technique underlying a feature now marketed on high-end headsets has been free for the taking since before most of those headsets shipped.