The ITU Gaze Tracker is an open-source gaze tracking application that aims to provide a low-cost alternative to commercial gaze tracking systems and to make this technology more accessible. It is being developed by the Gaze Group at the IT University of Copenhagen, supported by the Communication by Gaze Interaction Association (COGAIN).
The eye tracking software is video-based, and any camera equipped with infrared nightvision can be used, such as a videocamera or a webcam. The cameras that have been tested with the system can be found in our forum. We encourage users and developers to test our software with their cameras and provide feedback so we can continue development.
Download
The ITU Gaze Tracker can be downloaded from here. Uncompress the file and run GazeTracker.exe.
If you wish to download the source code, visit the gazetrackinglib project at Sourceforge.
References
If you use the ITU Gaze Tracker in any of your research, please provide a link to this page and a reference to one of the articles:
San Agustin, J., Skovsgaard, H., Mollenbach, E., Barret, M., Tall, M., Hansen, D. W., and Hansen, J. P. 2010. Evaluation of a low-cost open-source gaze tracker. In Proceedings of the 2010 Symposium on Eye-Tracking Research & Applications (Austin, Texas, March 22 - 24, 2010). ETRA '10. ACM, New York, NY, 77-80. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1743666.1743685
San Agustin, J., Skovsgaard, H., Hansen, J. P., and Hansen, D. W. 2009. Low-cost gaze interaction: ready to deliver the promises. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 - 09, 2009). CHI EA '09. ACM, New York, NY, 4453-4458. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1520340.1520682
Contribute
We welcome and encourage contributions by community members. If you find any bugs, have better methods to extract eye features or estimate gaze, or use the gaze tracker in any interesting project, please contact us in our forum.
System requirements
The requirements to run the ITU Gaze Tracker are:
- Windows XP with Service Pack 2
- .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
- A webcam or videocamera with nightvision and infrared illumination (check supported hardware)
- A fairly decent computer
Screenshots
Remote setup
The remote setup uses a videocamera and one or two infrared lamps. In this setup, both the center of the pupil and the corneal reflections created by the infrared lights are used to estimate the gaze coordinates on the screen.
An example of the setup can be seen in the following figure.
Head-mounted setup
To be able to use a webcam for eye tracking, it is necessary to place it very close to the eye. To simplify the required hardware, we suggest using a piece of balsa wood that the user bites. The camera is mounted to that piece of balsa wood, pointing to the eye of the user.
An example of this mouth-mounted setup is displayed in the following figure
It is important to note that in this case the camera moves with respect to the screen when the head moves. For this reason, head movements will affect the estimated gaze coordinates, meaning that the system is not head-pose invariant. A comfortable chair with head rest is recommended to use this setup.
Manual and videos
The user's guide to run and configure the ITU Gaze Tracker can be downloaded from here (PDF document)
A video recorded during the CHI Conference 2009 in Boston can be seen here.
A demonstration of how to use and set up the gaze tracker can be seen here.
API documentation
Coming soon...License
The ITU Gaze Tracker is released under a dual license to satisfy two different purposes: open-source and commercial development.
Open source license
If you want to use the open source license of the ITU Gaze Tracker, you must release your derived code as open source with a license compatible with GPLv3. We encourage everyone to derive open source products and to contribute to improve the gaze tracker by using our forum.
To support the development of gaze trackers and gaze-based applications, please become a member of the Communication by Gaze Interaction Association at cogain.org.
Commercial license
If you want to derive a commercial product and not release your code, you must purchase a commercial license. This will grant you the right to keep your code closed. If you wish to purchase a commercial license, please contact us.
