Quantitative comparison of a mobile, tablet-based eye-tracker and two stationary, video-based eye-trackers

The analysis of eye movements is a noninvasive, reliable and fast method to detect and quantify brain (dys)function. Here, we investigated the performance of two novel eye-trackers-the Thomas Oculus Motus-research mobile (TOM-rm) and the TOM-research stationary (TOM-rs)-and compared them with the performance of a well-established video-based eye-tracker, i.e., the EyeLink 1000 Plus (EL). The TOM-rm is a fully integrated, tablet-based mobile device that presents visual stimuli and records head-unrestrained eye movements at 30 Hz without additional infrared illumination. The TOM-rs is a stationary, video-based eye-tracker that records eye movements at either high spatial or high temporal resolution. We compared the performance of all three eye-trackers in two different behavioral tasks: pro- and anti-saccade and free viewing. We collected data from 30 human subjects while running all three eye-tracking devices in parallel. Parameters requiring a high spatial or temporal resolution (e.g., saccade latency or gain), as derived from the data, differed significantly between the EL and the TOM-rm in both tasks. Differences between results derived from the TOM-rs and the EL were most likely due to experimental conditions, which could not be optimized for both systems simultaneously. We conclude that the TOM-rm can be used for measuring basic eye-movement parameters, such as the error rate in a typical pro- and anti-saccade task, or the number and position of fixations in a visual foraging task, reliably at comparably low spatial and temporal resolution. The TOM-rs, on the other hand, can provide high-resolution oculomotor data at least on a par with an established reference system.