A low-cost webcam-based eye tracker and saccade measurement system

Abstract

Eye movements are integrated with cognitive processes, which indeed make it a helpful research basis for the investigation of human practices. Eye movements can be deployed in discovering several cognitive processes of the brain. This research utilizes low-resolution webcam to develop an eye tracker and saccades measurement tool to extensively lower the gadgets expenses. A consistent algorithm is developed to suit the quality of the webcam using open-source software (Python) to record the time series of the eye location. Likewise, several algorithms are proposed to extract high-level eye movement saccadic measurements from the raw gaze outputs. A pilot study is performed on ten normal participants and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system is quick, simple and efficient for eye tracking and saccade measurement. The developed tool can be used by clinicians and medical physicians for the diagnosis and identification of neurological disorders.