Eye tracking loss mitigations

A head mounted device (HMD) comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprises program instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the HMD to perform operations comprising:
• capturing sensor data of a 3D region via a sensor of the HMD, wherein the 3D region is in front of a display of the HMD that an eye of a user is expected to occupy while the HMD is worn by the user;
• generating eye tracking data comprising a 3D position of a portion of an eye based on tracking the 3D position of the portion of the eye, wherein the 3D position is updated over time based on the captured sensor data;
• detecting a condition interfering with updating the 3D position of the portion of the eye based on the captured sensor data;
• and
• following the condition, updating the eye tracking data using a smoothed 3D position of the portion of the eye, the smoothed 3D position determined based on one or more previously-tracked 3D positions of the portion of the eye and a current 3D position of the portion of the eye determined based on current sensor data.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable via one or more processors, of a head mounted device (HMD), to perform operations comprising:

• capturing sensor data of a 3D region via a sensor, wherein the 3D region is in front of a display of the HMD that an eye of a user is expected to occupy while the HMD is worn by the user;
• generating eye tracking data comprising a 3D position of a portion of an eye based on tracking the 3D position of the portion of the eye, wherein the 3D position is updated over time based on the captured sensor data;
• detecting a condition interfering with updating the 3D position of the portion of the eye based on the captured sensor data;
• and
• following the condition, updating the eye tracking data using a smoothed 3D position of the portion of the eye, the smoothed 3D position determined based on one or more previously-tracked 3D positions of the portion of the eye and a current 3D position of the portion of the eye determined based on current sensor data.