SMI iView X SDK 3.0 released

SMI just released version 3.0 of their Software Development Kit (SDK) which contains low and high level functions, documentation and sample code (matlab, e-prime, c/c++, Python and C#). The SDK supports Windows XP, Vista and 7 (both 32 and 64 bit). Available by for free for existing customers. Good news for developers, especially the 64-bit version for Windows 7. Releasing extensive and well documented SDKs for free is a trend that has been adopted by most manufacturers by now, it just makes perfect sense.

Mirametrix acquired by TandemLaunch Technologies

MONTREAL (Quebec), February 18, 2011 – TandemLaunch Technologies today announced that it has completed the acquisition of all assets and staff of Vancouver-based Mirametrix Research Inc., a privately held provider of gaze tracking technology. Mirametrix is a technology company offering affordable gaze tracking systems for application in vision research and content analytics. The technology acquired through Mirametrix complements TandemLaunch’s consumer gaze tracking portfolio. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Mirametrix is an innovative small company that has successfully introduced gaze tracking solutions for cost-competitive applications. TandemLaunch offers the resources to scale the Mirametrix business and ultimately bring gaze tracking into the consumer market” said Helge Seetzen, CEO of TandemLaunch.

The website has been updated revealing the new executive team, product offering appears to remain the same for the time being. Helge Seetzen (blog) is an entrepreneur who sold his previous company, BrightSide, to Dolby Technologies for ~$30 million which he invested into the TandemLaunch incubator which focuses on early stages in technology development with the aim bring in industry partners to acquire the technology for further commercialization (interview). 

Congrats to Craig Hennessey, founder of Mirametrix, who is now well on his way to commercialize his PhD research (1, 2) on remote eye tracking based on a single camera setup, bright pupil and corneal reflections. It will be interesting to see how additional resources backing the operation will affects the industry and what role an affordable but perhaps less accurate system has to play. The latter can be improved upon but what about the market, will an affordable system expand or create new segments? From the top of my head, Yes. Time will tell..

EyeTech Digital Systems @ GDC2011

Valve Eye Controlled Portal 2

Source PCGamer.

CUShop concept @ Clemson University

"Clemson University architecture students are working with the packaging science department in designing an eye tracking lab to be a fully immersive grocery store shopping experience. This concept explores the entrance into the lab through a vestibule space created by two sliding glass doors, mimicking the space found in many grocery stores."

Accurate eye center localisation for low-cost eye tracking

Fabian Timm from the Lübeck University Institute for Neuro and Bioinformatics demonstrate a "novel approach for accurate localisation of the eye centres (pupil) in real time. In contrast to other approaches, we neither employ any kind of machine learning nor a model scheme - we just compute dot products! Our method computes very accurate estimations and can therefore be used in real world applications such as eye (gaze) tracking." Sounds great, any ideas on gaze estimation and accuracy?

Head-mounted eye-tracking application for driving

Nicolas Schneider have for his masters thesis modified the ITU Gaze Tracker for eye tracking in an automotive setting. It incorporates a scene camera and software that calibrates and integrates it in the platform. The project was carried out at Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard and there is a good chance it will be released open source. A fine piece of work and an awesome addition to the framework. We're impressed by the results. More info to follow, for now enjoy this video.

• Nicolas Schneider, Peter Bex, Erhardt Barth, and Michael Dorr. 2011. An open-source low-cost eye-tracking system for portable real-time and offline tracking. In Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Novel Gaze-Controlled Applications (NGCA '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, , Article 8 , 4 pages. (Full text: PDF Online)

A self-calibrating, camera-based eye tracker for the recording of rodent eye movements (Zoccolan et al, 2010)

Came across an interesting methods article in "Frontiers in Neuroscience" published in late November last  year which involves the development of a fully automated eye tracking system which is calibrated without requiring co-operation from the subject. This is done by fixing the location of the eye and moving the camera to establish a geometric model (also see Stahl et al, 2000, 2004). Apparently they attempted to use a commercial EyeLink II device first but found it not suitable for rodent eye tracking due to thresholding implementation, illumination conditions and failing corneal reflection tracking when the rodent was chewing. So the authors built their own solution using a Prosilica camera and a set of algorithms (depicted below). Read the paper for implementation details. I find it to be a wonderful piece of work, different  from human eye tracking for sure but still relevant and fascinating.

Schematic diagram of the eye-tracking system

 Illustration of the algorithm to track the eye’s pupil and corneal

reflection spot.

Eye coordinate system and measurements

Horizontal and vertical alignment of the eye with the center of

the camera’s sensor.

Abstract:

"Much of neurophysiology and vision science relies on careful measurement of a human or animal subject’s gaze direction. Video-based eye trackers have emerged as an especially popular option for gaze tracking, because they are easy to use and are completely non-invasive. However, video eye trackers typically require a calibration procedure in which the subject must look at a series of points at known gaze angles. While it is possible to rely on innate orienting behaviors for calibration in some non-human species, other species, such as rodents, do not reliably saccade to visual targets, making this form of calibration impossible. To overcome this problem, we developed a fully automated infrared video eye-tracking system that is able to quickly and accurately calibrate itself without requiring co-operation from the subject. This technique relies on the optical geometry of the cornea and uses computer-controlled motorized stages to rapidly estimate the geometry of the eye relative to the camera. The accuracy and precision of our system was carefully measured using an artificial eye, and its capability to monitor the gaze of rodents was verified by tracking spontaneous saccades and evoked oculomotor reflexes in head-fixed rats (in both cases, we obtained measurements that are consistent with those found in the literature). Overall, given its fully automated nature and its intrinsic robustness against operator errors, we believe that our eye-tracking system enhances the utility of existing approaches to gaze-tracking in rodents and represents a valid tool for rodent vision studies."

• Zoccolan DF, Graham BJ, Cox DD (2010) A self-calibrating, camera-based eye tracker for the recording of rodent eye movements. Frontiers in Neuroscience Methods. doi:10.3389/fnins.2010.00193 [link]

EyeTech Digital Systems

Arizona-based EyeTech Digital Systems offers several interesting eye trackers where the new V1 caught my attention with its extended track-box of 25 x 18 x 50cm. The rather large depth range is provided through a custom auto focus mechanism developed in cooperation with Brigham Young University Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. This makes the device particularly suitable for larger displays such as public displays/digital signage, still the I'd imaging the calibration procedure to remain, ideally you'd want to walk up and interact/collect data automatically without any wizards or intervention. In any case, a larger trackbox is always welcome and it certainly opens up new opportunities. EyeTechs V1 offers 20cm more than most.

Spring eye tracker in action

More videos of the Spring eye tracker is available at the company website.