Two companies, Eyetracking and Tobii were demonstrating eyetracking technology for a range of applications at I/ITSEC 2016.
The company Eyetracker says its tracker can track heads, faces and even eyelids in addition to gaze direction. It is packaged in a conventional long narrow box that includes cameras and 850nm IR LEDs. But the components can also be added to glasses, but not usually sunglasses. The 60 Hz output of the device can drive up to three monitors so you can show a variety of diagnostic data all at once.
One novel feature that the company was demonstrating was the ability to track pupil diameter and correlate that with the cognitive load of the user. The fast update rate of the sensors allows the system to capture rapid micro changes in pupil diameter, which are controlled by two muscle groups in the eye.
The chart shows the orientation parameters of each eye while the top left “speedometer” graph shows the cognitive load. This is computed by analyzing the structure of the micro fluctuation in pupil diameter and the company claims it is quite accurate.
Meanwhile, Tobii was showing its miniature camera, LED sensor/transmitter device which can be easily fitted into a pair of safety glasses or a VR headset (photo). In the safety glasses configuration, a forward facing video camera is added allowing the gaze position to seen and recorded over the video. In the simulation market, this can be useful for understanding how a trainee is gaining proficiency by analyzing where they are looking during the training period. Are they quickly finding the right knob or lever or are they visually search first, for example? Such vision paths can be compared to the performance of proficient professionals to help judge when the trainee is operating at a high enough level. Tobii can also couple the eye tracking with biometric sensors like EKG to help determine stress levels as well.
In development is an expansion of the update rate to 600 Hz to improve the micro saccade eye movement analytical capabilities of the system. – CC
