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Argus Science eye tracking: frequently asked questions

Prescription glasses, 3D gaze, local processing, accuracy, motion capture, and support for legacy ASL systems.

Can ETVision be worn over prescription glasses?

Yes. The ETVision frame is designed to sit over the participant's own glasses. Nothing has to be swapped out and no corrective lens has to be fitted to the tracker. Participants who need their glasses to do the task can keep wearing them, which matters when the task is flying, driving, reading an instrument or operating equipment.

What is true 3D gaze, and how is it different from gaze on a video?

Most eye trackers draw a dot on a scene video, which tells you where on the image the person was looking, not what they were looking at. ET3Space computes binocular vergence and combines it with head tracking, so gaze is reported in real-world room coordinates and mapped onto physical objects you define. You get the object, not the pixel position. 3D gaze in the real world explains how the world model behind it is built.

Live AI object detection vs. post-hoc AOI tracking: what's the difference?

Post-hoc AOI tracking happens after the session. An area of interest is drawn around an object in the recorded video, and software follows it frame to frame. The result is where that area was, worked out recording by recording. Live AI object detection happens during the session. A trained model recognizes objects in the scene camera image and names the one gaze lands on, as it happens. In ETVision this is AI LMOT (Live Multiple Object Tracking). Per-object attention statistics build up while the task runs, and every participant's data arrives already labeled. The two connect in Argus software. ETAnalysis does post-hoc AOI tracking, and the moving areas of interest defined there can be trained into a custom model that runs live on ETVision.

Does the eye tracking data go to the cloud?

No. Recording, gaze computation, object recognition and analysis all run locally, on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded to an external service and there is no account to sign into. Sites that cannot send data outside the building can run the system exactly as it ships.

What are the accuracy and sampling rate of ETVision?

ETVision samples each eye at 180 Hz and is specified at 0.5 degree accuracy. Tracking is binocular, so both eyes are measured independently rather than one eye being estimated from the other. Battery life is over four hours of continuous recording.

How long does calibration take on ETVision?

Auto calibration takes about five seconds, using automatic feature detection. Single-point and multi-point calibration are available when a study needs them. Calibration is what makes the accuracy figure true for the participant in front of you rather than inferred from a population average, which is why it is worth the five seconds.

Does Argus Science eye tracking work with motion capture or head tracking systems?

Yes. ET3Space is built to take head position and orientation from an external tracking system and combine it with the eye data to produce gaze in room coordinates. This is how gaze gets mapped to instruments in a cockpit, surfaces in a vehicle mockup, or displays in a control room.

Can the object recognition be trained on our own objects?

Yes. Live AI MOT runs on the platform itself and can be trained on the objects that matter in your environment rather than a fixed generic list. Because it is not routed through a public cloud service, the training data and the recorded sessions stay with you.

Does ETVision have Parallax Compensation?

Yes, automatically. ETVision is fundamentally invariant to Parallax Error. By leveraging its knowledge of the 3D vergence angle, the system dynamically recalculates the scene-camera projection offset based on the user’s distance from the target. As a result, ETVision eliminates parallax error automatically, without requiring manual adjustment or calibration for different viewing distances.

Does ETVision have Slippage Compensation?

Yes, automatically. Using the pupil, corneal reflections, and other eye features captured by the eye cameras, ETVision employs a 3D eye model to continuously determine the position and orientation of each eye. Because each eye is measured independently, the system can automatically compensate for changes caused by glasses movement.

Is Argus Science the same company as Applied Science Laboratories (ASL)?

Argus Science is the direct successor to Applied Science Laboratories. ASL was one of the first companies in eye tracking, with roots in research at MIT, and the line of work has run continuously for more than forty years. The people, the measurement methods, and the responsibility for the installed base carried over.

What about older ASL eye tracking systems?

If you have an ASL eye tracker in a lab and need manuals, software or help getting it running, see Legacy and ASL support, or write to techsupport@ArgusScience.com.

Where are Argus Science eye trackers made?

Argus Science designs and builds its systems in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. Hardware fabrication and software development are both done in the United States.

Is there an Annual Fee or Subscription Fee?

No. There is no annual fee to renew, in year one or year ten.

Is there an SDK for Argus Science eye trackers?

Yes, and it is free. The SDK ships with working samples in C++, C#, Python, LSL and MATLAB, so live gaze data can be pulled into your own application or synchronized with other instruments.

Further reading

GLASSES

ETVision

The wearable system underneath it. Both eyes measured independently at 180 Hz, which is what makes vergence a measurement rather than an estimate.

TECH

3D Gaze in the Real World

How gaze is placed on real objects in a room, and what a world model has to contain for that to work.

GUIDE

How to choose eye tracking glasses for research

Seven questions that decide which wearable eye tracker fits a study, including the cases where the answer points elsewhere.

New to eye tracking?

Argus Science can provide training either online or on-site.

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