Predictive eye tracking systems and methods for variable focus electronic displays

A method, comprising:

• obtaining eye tracking data for a user of a head-mountable display device having a display panel and an optical block for the display panel;
• determining a current direction and speed of an eye movement, based on the eye tracking data;
• applying the current direction and speed of the eye movement to a saccade model, a smooth-pursuit model, a vestibulo-ocular model, and a vergence model to identify a type of the eye movement from among a plurality of types of eye movements including a saccade movement, a smooth pursuit movement, a vestibulo-ocular movement, a vergence movement, or a combination of one or more of the saccade movement, the smooth pursuit movement, the vestibulo-ocular movement, or the vergence movement;
• generating a predicted future vergence plane based on the identified type of eye movement;
• and
• adjusting at least one of the display panel or a component of the optical block based on the predicted future vergence plane.

A method of operating a head-mountable display system having a head-mountable display device that includes a display panel, an optical block configured to focus display light from the display panel, and left and right eye tracking units, the method comprising:

• obtaining, with an eye prediction module of the head-mountable display system, eye tracking data from the left and right eye tracking units;
• determining, with the eye prediction module:
• a first predicted gaze location based on the eye tracking data and a saccade model of an eye movement,
• a second predicted gaze location based on the eye tracking data and a smooth-pursuit model of the eye movement,
• a third predicted gaze location based on the eye tracking data and a vestibulo-ocular model of the eye movement, and
• a predicted vergence plane based on the eye tracking data and a vergence model of the eye movement.