The Price of Eye Tracking
Cost is a word we hear thrown around quite a bit in the eye tracking world. With so many do-it-yourself eye tracking experiments being performed, it’s no wonder that cost has become an issue. As with anything, people can get quite creative finding ways around pricey and inhibitive equipment.
In a paper published at Stanford University titled “Reducing the Cost of Eye Tracking Systems”, Manu Kumar tackles, as you might expect, just that.
Exhorbitant costs have hindered would-be researchers in the field of eye tracking or in other fields looking to employ eye tracking technology, resulting in relatively limited use. Of course, on Eye Tracking Update, we like to highlight some of the low-cost, DIY, creative approaches, but the fact of the matter is that, traditionally speaking, eye tracking has been very expensive.
According to Kumar, much of this has to do with eye tracking vendors complaining that the lack of a “killer application” has kept the demand for the technology low. As a result, vendors have to charge higher prices to keep up with their research and development costs so that they can remain in business. With companies and individuals looking to purchase and experiment with eye tracking devices complaining that the equipment is outpriced, it essentially creates a vicious circle of high cost and low demand.
As they say, however, necessity is the mother of invention. Kumar writes about how high cost systems ($4000 – $40,000) have created a wealth of independent “home-brew” eye tracking systems, some of which we’ve covered in this very site. But he brings up an entirely valid point, that building an eye tracker and researching applications of eye trackers are two very different tasks. To build something from scratch is quite an endeavor and often difficult to get underway. But to appropriate ready-made equipment is another thing altogether.
To note, the article is a little old in terms of the rate in which technology progresses, but he still raises some very good points, focusing on the Eye Tracking Research and Applications Symposium, a 2006 conference in San Diego. At that time, the eye tracking community backed a 1 million dollar Grand Challenge, which aimed for a stellar improvement in eye tracking technology while at the same time making it cost affordable for the average tinkerer.
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