Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking simulation only works with a simulated DATAPixx3 device.

Simulated gaze

Simulated eye tracking treats the position of the user’s mouse on the display as the position of both left and right eyes. By default, eye position is expressed in pixels using screen coordinates, where 0,0 is the center of the display. If you have multiple screens, position information will be reported based on the current screen where the mouse is visible.

Mouse-based “gaze” is sampled at a rate of 60Hz. Saccade and fixation flags use the 60Hz data to derive velocity information and generate flags. Eye tracking schedules will continue to report gaze position at 2000Hz; position and flag data will therefore be repeated across samples.

Blinks of both eyes may be simulated with the keyboard shortcut ALT+0 on the numpad.

During simulation, pupil size will remain fixed at a value of 0.125 pixels.

Enabling simulated gaze

In order to enable simulated gaze, you must select a virtual DATAPixx3 device. This is the control device for the TRACKPixx3 eye tracking system. Simulated gaze cannot be used with any other simulated VPixx device.

To create a new device, select DATAPixx3 from the side menu. You will then be directed to the I/O configuration interface. Select VideoBahn from the right hand dropdown menu (1) or the visual I/O interface (2), and then select the TRACKPixx3 eye tracker accessory (3).

As soon as the TRACKPixx3 is selected, gaze simulation will begin. It will continue until the simulator program is closed, or the ---None--- accessory is selected from the VideoBahn menu.

GetEyePosition and Eye Tracking Schedules

Our APIs will treat the simulated gaze as though a TRACKPixx3 device were connected to your simulated DATAPixx3. Calls to GetEyePosition will return the current position of the mouse, while the eye tracking schedule will operate as normal.