A remote eye tracker uses invisible infrared light and cameras to calculate the user’s gaze direction and determine the exact point on the screen they are looking at.
A remote eye tracker works by emitting invisible infrared light that reflects off the surface of the user’s eyes. This light cannot be perceived by the human eye and therefore does not distract or disturb the user. At the same time, infrared illumination makes the system largely independent of ambient lighting conditions and allows it to operate reliably even in very dark environments.
Integrated high-speed cameras continuously capture the position of the pupils as well as the reflections of the infrared light on the cornea. Typically, this happens at around 90 measurements per second. Based on the relative positions of these points, specialized algorithms running directly on the eye tracker calculate the gaze direction and determine the exact coordinates of the user’s gaze point on the screen.
To account for individual eye characteristics, a short calibration process of about 30 seconds is performed during the initial setup. During this step, the user simply follows a series of points on the screen. Once completed, the system can precisely determine where the user is looking on the display.
