A Feasibility Study of Tablet-Based Eye Movement Assessment Using a Built-In Camera: A Pilot Study

This study developed a tablet PC-based eye movement assessment application and conducted a pilot investigation to explore whether tablet-based ocular motor metrics demonstrate functional sensitivity to variations in conventional visual function parameters. Twenty-three healthy adults (10 males, 13 females; mean age: 24.41 ± 1.91 years) without a history of ocular disease performed smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movement tests at three difficulty levels. For exploratory analysis, participants were stratified into above- and below-mean groups based on conventional visual function test results. For smooth pursuit movements, mean pursuit traversal time demonstrated statistically significant differences between the low-medium (1.11 s) and low-high (1.14 s) difficulty levels (p < 0.05), with corresponding differences in derived velocity. Saccadic movements showed significant mean accuracy differences between low-high (1.02 points) and medium-high (0.95 points) difficulty levels (p < 0.05). Participants with higher-than-average horizontal phoria values (distance and near) and the blur/break points of near convergence amplitude exhibited significantly longer smooth pursuit traversal times (corresponding to slower derived velocities) (p < 0.05). The high-value group for blur point of near convergence amplitude demonstrated significantly superior saccadic accuracy (1.63 points) compared with the low-value group (1.30 points) (p < 0.05). Exploratory associations between visual function parameters and ocular motor performance were observed within the healthy participant group, suggesting exploratory associations between tablet-based smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movement performance and conventional visual function measures. These findings suggest that tablet PC-based eye movement assessment may serve as a feasible, low-cost approach for exploratory screening and functional monitoring, rather than a validated diagnostic tool.