Eye-tracked Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Survey on Methods and Privacy Challenges
This paper addresses privacy leakage risks arising from the correlation between eye-tracking data and visual stimuli in VR environments. We systematically survey full-stack VR eye-tracking technologies—from pupil detection and gaze estimation to cognitive modeling—published between 2012 and 2022, alongside their associated privacy threats. First, we establish the first cross-disciplinary survey framework bridging VR eye-tracking and privacy protection, identifying three privacy-centric research directions. Second, we propose a novel co-design paradigm integrating eye movement authentication with data anonymization, synergizing computer vision, human-computer interaction modeling, differential privacy, adversarial generation, and biometric encryption. Third, we clarify the technological evolution trajectory and privacy threat landscape, and introduce quantifiable evaluation metrics and an implementable defense roadmap. Our work provides both theoretical foundations and practical guidelines for developing secure and trustworthy VR systems. (149 words)