Methods and Systems for Gaze-Based Control of Virtual Reality Media Content

A method comprising:

• presenting, by a virtual reality media system on a display screen of a media player device associated with a user, a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world, wherein the field of view includes content of the immersive virtual reality world and dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world;
• detecting, by the virtual reality media system, that a gaze of the user is directed for a first predetermined amount of time at a gaze target included within the field of view;
• presenting, by the virtual reality media system in response to the detecting that the gaze of the user is directed for the first predetermined amount of time at the gaze target, an interactive user interface associated with the gaze target, the interactive user interface presented within the field of view together with the content of the immersive virtual reality world and including a gaze-selectable control;
• detecting, by the virtual reality media system while the interactive user interface is being presented within the field of view, that the gaze of the user is directed at the gaze-selectable control for a second predetermined amount of time;
• and
• performing, by the virtual reality media system based on the detecting that the gaze of the user is directed at the gaze-selectable control for the second predetermined amount of time, an operation associated with the gaze-selectable control.

A system comprising:

• at least one physical computing device that:
• presents, on a display screen of a media player device associated with a user, a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world, wherein the field of view includes content of the immersive virtual reality world and dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world;
• detects that a gaze of the user is directed for a predetermined amount of time at a gaze target included within the field of view;
• and
• presents, in response to the detection that the gaze of the user is directed for the predetermined amount of time at the gaze target, an interactive user interface associated with the gaze target, the interactive user interface presented within the field of view together with the content of the immersive virtual reality world.