Apple Quietly Acquires Eye-Tracking Firm from Germany

We have not heard anything recently about Apple building its own augmented reality headset akin to Google Glass, but the rumors have been coming and going for a while now.

Now it seems that Apple has acquired SensoMotoric Instruments, a German-based provider of eye tracking technologies, according to a report from MacRumors.

The acquisition, as per usual for Apple, was completed in secret through a shell company, so don’t expect to learn the value of the transaction, which likely took place earlier this month.

However, SensoMotoric’s technology is certainly interesting and has already been applied to virtual reality systems such as the Oculus Rift—especially as Apple prepares to fully release its ARKit, a development platform that will enable third-party devs to build augmented reality experiences inside of iOS apps.