A low-cost, high-performance video-based binocular eye tracker for psychophysical research.

Daria Ivanchenko,Frank Schaeffel,Ziad M Hafed,Katharina Rifai

doi:10.16910/jemr.14.3.3

Daria Ivanchenko, Frank Schaeffel + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.14.3.3

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Abstract

We describe a high-performance, pupil-based binocular eye tracker that approaches the performance of a well-established commercial system, but at a fraction of the cost. The eye tracker is built from standard hardware components, and its software (written in Visual C++) can be easily implemented. Because of its fast and simple linear calibration scheme, the eye tracker performs best in the central 10 degrees of the visual field. The eye tracker possesses a number of useful features: (1) automated calibration simultaneously in both eyes while subjects fixate four fixation points sequentially on a computer screen, (2) automated realtime continuous analysis of measurement noise, (3) automated blink detection, (4) and realtime analysis of pupil centration artifacts. This last feature is critical because it is known that pupil diameter changes can be erroneously registered by pupil-based trackers as a change in eye position. We evaluated the performance of our system against that of a wellestablished commercial system using simultaneous measurements in 10 participants. We propose our low-cost eye tracker as a promising resource for studies of binocular eye movements.

Highlights

Eye tracking is becoming increasingly pervasive in many applications: mobile phones, cars, laptops, movies, marketing, education, and video games (Carr & Grover, 2020; Frutos-Pascual & Garcia-Zapirain, 2015; Lu et al, 2017; Orlov & Apraksin, 2015; Strobl et al, 2019)
We describe how we have incorporated in our software algorithms features that would be very important for some applications, such as the study of fixational eye movements
Since fixational eye movements are of interest in a wide array of psychophysical applications (Hafed, 2013; Hafed et al, 2015; Ko et al, 2010; Martinez-Conde, 2004; Rucci, 2008; Tian et al, 2016; Willeke et al, 2019), we evaluated how well our eye tracker can detect microsaccades

Summary

Introduction

Eye tracking is becoming increasingly pervasive in many applications: mobile phones, cars, laptops, movies, marketing, education, and video games (Carr & Grover, 2020; Frutos-Pascual & Garcia-Zapirain, 2015; Lu et al, 2017; Orlov & Apraksin, 2015; Strobl et al, 2019). Eye trackers find use in rehabilitative and assistive applications (e.g., controlling of wheelchairs, robotic arms, and other prostheses) (Letaief et al, 2019; Wästlund et al, 2015). Eye trackers are Received November 19, 2020; Published May 05, 2021. A low-cost, high-performance video-based binocular eye tracker for psychophysical research.

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