The Foveal Desktop is a scalable *multi-resolution* large, graphic, display device. While large scale display devices utilizing collections of low-cost individual displays have been experimented with before, ours is multiresolution in nature.

Through a combination of custom software and cleverly arranged hardware, the system does not arrange pixels uniformly, but rather takes advantage of the foveal nature of a user's visual system, and actually displays more pixels where necessary- at the center of the user's visual field. This scheme considerably reduces the overall cost of the system since cost is directly related to the number of individual displays utilized, and we can, for instance, simulate a 9 projector system with an effective resolution of 3072x2304, with only 2 projectors. The system is fully integrated into the Windows desktop environment, allowing it to work with nearly any 2D or 3D application and making it extremely easy for HCI researchers to experiment with.

The current system manages a fixed foveal region. A fully roving foveated inset projection system is in development.

Principal Investigators
Jeff Han and
Ken Perlin
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences