SMI Announces New Eye Tracking Glasses 2.0
One of the leaders in wearable eye tracking, Sensomotoric Instruments (SMI), recently announced its newest product, Eye Tracking Glasses 2.0. These glasses don’t fall in the “smart glasses” category we’ve been seeing a lot of lately, but don’t be mistaken; they are plenty smart. While they look practically identical to the previous version of SMI Eye Tracking Glasses, there are a couple enhancements that make this mobile system one of the best available for real world eye tracking research studies.
The most notable improvements over the previous version of the SMI Eye Tracking Glasses are a 60 Hz binocular eye tracking sampling rate and a small, mobile recording unit based on a customized Galaxy S4 smartphone for in-field studies where a laptop is too bulky. The mobile recording unit can capture a minimum of 4 hours of data in the field. The SMI-ETG laptop is still required if you want to be able to view real time streaming of eye movements during the study or if you are require instant Retrospective Think Aloud recordings.
The SMI Eye Tracking Glasses still have impressive features like marker-less tracking in real world environments, minimal calibration procedures (0,1, or 3 point options), and an HD scene camera. The Eye Tracking Glasses 2.0 can be combined with SMI 3D Eye Tracking with 6D head and motion tracking for creating and testing a 3D user environment. They can also be synchronized with the Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset to record brain response data and gain further insight into emotional responses.
This system is ideal for research on consumer behavior, sports science, UI/UX, and human psychology because it enables subjects to be in a natural, rather than simulated, environment. None of the product sheets give any indication of price, so we’re guessing it’s probably still pretty steep and set on a case-by-case basis. The design won’t win any fashion awards, but as far as scientific tool for mobile eye tracking data collection, this system one of the most advanced on the market.