Rapid Android Development

Control a Virtual Camera with Your Gaze

For this final project in this chapter, we’ll implement an experimental and lesser-known method to interact with a 3D scene—using our gaze to rotate a constellation of planets containing Earth and the Moon. By looking at the scene displayed on our device screen from a specific angle, we can control the rotation of Earth and the Moon around the x- and y-axes, shown in the following screenshot. Similar to a scenario where we look around a fixed object by moving our head slightly sideways, we cause Earth to rotate and reveal the continents located on its sides accordingly.

We’ll place Earth at the center ...