Apple Acquires German Eye Tracking Firm SensoMotoric Instruments

Apple has almost certainly acquired German computer vision company SensoMotoric Instruments, a provider of eye tracking glasses and systems, based on evidence compiled by MacRumors.

sensomotoric instruments
On May 2, Apple's vice president of corporate law Gene Levoff, representing Delaware-based shell company Vineyard Capital Corporation, granted power of attorney to German law firm Hiking Kühn Lüer Wojtek to represent Vineyard Capital Corporation in all business related to the acquisition of SensoMotoric Instruments.

apple signature sensomotoric
On June 16, SensoMotoric Instruments filed several documents with the German Company Register outlining new articles of incorporation. SensoMotoric's previous managing director Eberhard Schmidt was replaced by Dr. Ali Sahin, one of the German attorneys representing Vineyard Capital Corporation.

Vineyard Capital Corporation is listed as having acquired all company shares of SensoMotoric Instruments.

Apple takes steps to hide its acquisitions through shell companies, which essentially only exist on paper, but Levoff's signature on one of the documents is a clear giveaway that Vineyard Capital Corporation is Apple. Levoff even notarized the document in Cupertino, California, where Apple is headquartered.

SensoMotoric Instruments recently updated its website, removing over a dozen pages with detailed information about its products. The website also no longer has a jobs portal, news blog, schedule of events and workshops, contact information, list of distributors and resellers, or mailing list signup form.

An archived version of the website from last week indicated the company was hiring, but the current version does not. Schmidt's name and headshot have also been removed from the website now that he is no longer managing director. Christian Villwock, Director of OEM Solutions Business, was also removed.

The acquisition is backed up by an anonymous tipster, who told us that he allegedly spoke to an Apple employee today who said the deal has been completed. Additionally, one of SensoMotoric's clients informed us that they have been attempting to contact the company for several weeks without hearing back.

Apple and SensoMotoric Instruments did not respond to multiple requests for comments. SensoMotoric's phone line was out of service.

SensoMotoric Instruments, founded in 1991, has developed a range of eye tracking hardware and software for several fields of use, including virtual and augmented reality, in-car systems, clinical research, cognitive training, linguistics, neuroscience, physical training and biomechanics, and psychology.

The company's Eye Tracking Glasses, for instance, are capable of recording a person's natural gaze behavior in real-time and in real world situations with a sampling rate up to 120Hz. As seen in the video below, one possible use case is for athletes looking to evaluate and improve their visual performance.


SensoMotoric has also developed eye-tracking technology for virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift, which can analyze the wearer's gaze and help to reduce motion sickness, a common side effect of VR. The solution can also allow for a person's gaze to control menus or aim in a game with their gaze.


SensoMotoric's other eye-tracking solutions include standalone devices, such as the RED250mobile, which allows saccade-based studies to be conducted at 250Hz for researchers who require both mobility and high sampling rate.

Apple has reportedly prototyped a pair of "smart glasses" that would connect to an iPhone and display "images and other information" to the wearer, and SensoMotoric's eye-tracking technology could feasibly play a role in that product alongside solutions from Apple's other acquisitions like Faceshift.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has also repeatedly expressed a "profound" interest in augmented reality, calling the technology "a big idea" like the smartphone. He said augmented reality should "amplify" human contact, but noted "there are things to discover before that technology is good enough for the mainstream."

With iOS 11, Apple is delving into augmented reality in a big way, introducing an ARKit development platform that will allow developers to quickly and easily build augmented reality experiences into their apps and games.


SensoMotoric Instruments is headquartered in Teltow, Germany, near Berlin, and its website said it had an office in Boston as well. It's unclear if the company and its roughly 60 employees, according to LinkedIn, will merge within Apple or remain an independent subsidiary. Financial terms of the deal are unknown.

Eric Slivka contributed to this report.

Update: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," an Apple representative said in a statement to Axios, essentially confirming the deal.

Top Rated Comments

Gasu E. Avatar
82 months ago
I'm excited about nearly every Apple product that's come out, but I'll say the same thing about this that I said about Google Glass.

I don't understand why anyone would buy this. The concept is neat, but I don't see it having any success in the real world. Having data pop up while you're going about your business would be incredibly distracting. People wear glasses because they have to... because their eyesight sucks or the sun is in their eyes. I don't see people paying hundred of dollars to wear something on their face unless they absolutely have to.

Also, the cameras make people nervous and they will undoubtedly create a lot of attention that will create awkward conversations when you're just trying to go about your business.

Am I missing something here? It seems like it'd be useful, but not enough to warrant all the downsides that come with it.
Are you missing something here? Yes, the entire content of this post, which is unrelated to anything you mention.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lunarworks Avatar
82 months ago
From the looks of it Apple's testing their new AR glasses out in Nova Scotia.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bob Zimmerman Avatar
82 months ago
It's hard to overstate what a big deal this technology is for VR. Right now, VR headsets suck massively. They have the equivalent of 20/100 vision or so, and they require absurdly powerful GPUs to run because they have to render every pixel all the time. If we go to sharper displays, they'll require far, far more processing power.

The funny thing is our eyes are only really detail-sensitive in a very small area called the fovea. Our brains fill in everything else from what we remember being there. So we're spending all this processor power and electricity to render huge numbers of pixels when the user can only possibly see a tiny number of them from any given frame.

Eye tracking allows the computer to guess where the fovea is on the frame. This allows the computer to render only that area at high detail, and render everything else much rougher. This is called foveated rendering, and it has the potential to allow phone GPUs to render convincing VR at nearly-arbitrary display sizes.

For people curious about the science behind this, check out some of the research into a phenomenon called saccadic masking. When our eyes move, we go momentarily blind. Again, our brains fill in the detail so we don't perceive the gap. This and the unimportance of detail outside the fovea have been proven with some fascinating experiments involving these sorts of gaze trackers.

I still think VR is a gimmick rather than something actually useful, but more pervasive deployment may change that.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LukasValine Avatar
82 months ago
Wearing glasses when your eyesight is fine sounds so incredibly hipster.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ButteryScrollin Avatar
82 months ago
Apple Iris, baby! Next big thing woooo
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AdFeCu Avatar
82 months ago
Amazing. But I wonder what effect will it have on the wearer's vision? My vision, for example, has worsened because of my extended use of the iPad. Will the rumored AR device cause more damage to my eyes?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 for All iPhones and iPads

Tuesday September 26, 2023 12:47 pm PDT by
Apple today released iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates, with the software coming five days after the releases of iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1. Today's iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates arrive as build 21A351 and can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Note that iOS 17.0.2 was previously made available for iPhone...
Apple WWDC23 macOS Sonoma hero

macOS Sonoma Launching This Week With These New Features

Sunday September 24, 2023 12:45 pm PDT by
Apple previously announced that macOS Sonoma will be released this Tuesday, September 26. The free software update includes many new features and changes for the Mac, including the five that we have highlighted below. In addition to these five features, we have shared the full release notes for macOS Sonoma below for a complete overview of everything new. Desktop Widgets macOS Sonoma...
iPhone 15 Pro Lineup Feature

Kuo: iPhone 15 Pro Overheating Issues Likely Due to Thermal Compromises, Not 3nm Node

Tuesday September 26, 2023 9:12 am PDT by
Complaints about heat issues with the iPhone 15 Pro models are not related to TSMC's 3-nanometer node that was used for the A17 Pro chip, according to well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo says that overheating could be caused by "compromises made in the thermal system design" that allowed Apple to cut down on the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro models. Kuo says that the reduced heat...
iPhone 16 Side Feature

iPhone 16 to Include an Additional Capacitive 'Capture' Button

Monday September 25, 2023 12:50 pm PDT by
The iPhone 16 series is expected to gain an additional capacitive button, known internally as the "Capture Button." Codenamed "Project Nova," the button is likely to be one of the main selling points of the iPhone 16 lineup, assuming it gets past the initial testing phase. The Capture Button is located on the same side as the Power button, only positioned slightly lower - where the mmWave cutout...
ipad mini blue

Apple to Launch iPad Mini 7 Later This Year, Industry Report Suggests

Monday September 25, 2023 3:16 am PDT by
Apple could be preparing to release a seventh-generation iPad mini before the end of the year, based on a new report by DigiTimes. In an article discussing stagnating global tablet demand in the second half of 2023, the Taiwan-based outlet forecasts an uptick in Apple's share of the market owing to orders for a "small-size" iPad in the fourth quarter. From the report (see bold): In the...
macos sonoma 4

Apple Releases macOS Sonoma With New Widget Features, Safari Updates, Screen Sharing Improvements and More

Tuesday September 26, 2023 10:01 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS 14 Sonoma, the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Mac. macOS Sonoma has been in beta testing for several months, and it is compatible with the 2019 and later iMac, the iMac Pro, the 2018 and later Mac mini, the 2018 and later MacBook Pro, the 2019 and later Mac Pro, and the Mac Studio. The ‌macOS Sonoma update can be downloaded for free on...