Designing and Implementation of a Non-Invasive Eye Tracker System

Golnaz Baghdadi, Ali Motie Nasrabadi

Purpose: Quantifiable eye-movement analysis enables new diagnostic markers, study oculomotor behavior, cognitive visual function and identification of disease at a much earlier stage of progression. Methods: In our system, we have used Infrared photoelectric oculography (IR-Tracking) method that is contact-free, and can be used for a long time without any discomfort for the subject. The system works based on the principle of reflection of infrared light by the sharp boundary between iris and sclera, the limbus. The measured values of the eye position were processed by the systems software which shows the result of processing numerically or graphically.

Results: The system was tested on 10 subjects several times. The test subjects were asked to look at points in different directions and the system measured the direction of their gaze. The result shows that the designed system can track the eye movements and shows the gaze direction in different time graphically or as a numerical index.

Conclusion: In this research an eye tracker system was designed which is novel in our country because of the implemented tracking method and its calibration stage. This system that can track the eye movements in different directions can be useful in diagnosis of oculomotor disease. The other advantage of the system is that there is no necessity for the subject to sit in front of a monitor. The system can track the gaze direction even if the subject is lying down on the bed. Therefore the system can be used to investigate the performance of the eye movements after eye surgeries. The designed eye tracker can also be used as an appropriated tool in the study of cognitive visual function and vision deficiencies.

3nd Seminar on Ophthalmic Physics and Biomedical Engineering, 2012, Farabi Eye Hospital