Simple Wearable Eye Tracker With Mini-Infrared Point Sensors

Abstract

In this study, we developed a wearable eye tracker leveraging mini-infrared point sensors. The eye tracker utilized two inexpensive mini-infrared ray (IR) point sensors to measure the left-right eye movements of both eyes. These left-right eye movements, play a crucial role in monitoring and treating mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and are also essential in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR). The proposed eye tracker can track a user's eye movements by detecting the left-right pupils. We developed a dual sensor positioning algorithm that measures the left-right movements of both eyes using only two sensors. The strategy of positioning the sensor symmetrically between or outside the eyes allows for the precise measurement of the movements of both eyes. To validate the proposed wearable eye tracker, we analyzed the left and right eye movements of 10 participants and found that there was no statistically significant difference. Further analysis demonstrated a high correlation between the measured eye-movement and the input eye-movement frequency (Spearman's correlation coefficient: 0.9619). The proposed device showed the feasibility of employing a wearable and inexpensive eye tracker with only two mini-IR point sensors to accurately measure the left-right movements of both eyes.