Foveated imaging based on regions of interest

An apparatus for displaying images, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to:
• obtain image data for display at a display of a head-mounted device (HMD), wherein the image data is based on at least one image captured by a scene-facing camera of the HMD;
• identify pixels of the image data that represent content in the image data;
• determine, based on a plurality of factors, that the content satisfies a criterion based on one or more characteristics of the pixels;
• responsive to determining that the content satisfies the criterion, determine a content-based region of interest (ROI) within the image data based on the pixels;
• display, at the display, ROI image data of the content-based ROI at a first resolution;
• and
• display, at the display, peripheral image data outside the content-based ROI at a second resolution, wherein the second resolution is lower than the first resolution.

A method for displaying images, the method comprising:

• obtaining image data for display at a display of a head-mounted device (HMD);
• identify pixels of the image data that represent content in the image data;
• in response to determining that one or more characteristics of the pixels satisfy a threshold, determining a content-based region of interest (ROI) within the image data based on the pixels;
• determining a gaze-based ROI of the image data based on gaze information;
• displaying, at the display, content-based-ROI image data of the content-based ROI at a first resolution;
• displaying, at the display, ROI image data of the ROI at a second resolution;
• and
• displaying, at the display, peripheral image data outside the content-based ROI and outside the ROI at a third resolution.