GazePair: Efficient Pairing of Augmented Reality Devices Using Gaze Tracking

Abstract: As Augmented Reality (AR) devices become more prevalent and commercially viable, the need for quick, efficient, and secure schemes for pairing these devices has become more pressing. Current methods to securely exchange holograms require users to send this information through large data centers, creating security and privacy concerns. Existing techniques to pair these devices on a local network and share information fall short in terms of usability and scalability. These techniques either require hardware not available on AR devices, intricate physical gestures, removal of the device from the head, do not scale to multiple pairing partners, or rely on methods with low entropy to create encryption keys. To that end, we propose a novel pairing system, called GazePair, that improves on all existing local pairing techniques by creating an efficient, effective, and intuitive pairing protocol. GazePair uses eye gaze tracking and a spoken key sequence cue (KSC) to generate identical, independently generated symmetric encryption keys with 64 bits of entropy. GazePair also achieves improvements in pairing success rates and times over current methods. Additionally, we show that GazePair can extend to multiple users. Finally, we assert that GazePair can be used on any Mixed Reality (MR) device equipped with eye gaze tracking.