A Preliminary Study on Comparative Eye Tracking Analysis Using a Meta Quest Pro

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality (VR) Technology
• Ophthalmology and Vision Science

Background:

• Meta Quest Pro's eye and facial tracking is crucial for research in visual attention, cognition, and behavior.
• Individual anatomical differences in eye spacing (e.g., Outer Canthal Distance, Interpupillary Distance, Intercanthal Distance) may affect eye-tracking accuracy.
• Understanding these variations is key to reliable data collection in VR research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of inter-eye distance variations on eye-movement feature extraction using the Meta Quest Pro.
• To assess the accuracy and reliability of eye-tracking data across different facial anatomies in a VR environment.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 16 participants (ages 21-30) to minimize variability.
• Collected eye measurements (OCD, IPD, ICD), performed eye calibration, and conducted three VR tasks (fixed gaze, regular, irregular eye movements).
• Utilized statistical analyses including Shapiro-Wilk, D'Agostino-Pearson, Spearman Correlation, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U tests.

Main Results:

• No significant influence of inter-eye distance on eye movement tracking accuracy was found (P ≥ .60).
• Strong bilateral correlations for gaze features (Spearman ρ = 0.84-0.99) were consistent across all groups.
• Spatial accuracy remained stable, with angular error between 1.11° and 1.36° regardless of eye distance.

Conclusions:

• Inter-eye distance variations do not appear to significantly affect the accuracy of eye-tracking data from the Meta Quest Pro.
• The Meta Quest Pro demonstrates reliable eye-tracking performance across a range of participant eye anatomies.
• Findings support the use of Meta Quest Pro for diverse populations in VR research without major concerns about anatomical eye distance.