Tobii IS5XT Integration Platform — transforming lab projects into viable commercial products

Introducing our most accurate eye tracking integration platform yet.

In the various discussions I’ve had with healthcare customers and partners over the past few years, the same two questions keep popping up 1) can I get higher accuracy eye tracking, and 2) can I embed eye tracking in a compact portable solution? I believe these questions arise from opportunities created by the democratization of technology, which in healthcare means a rising demand for assessment products that support mobility, ease-of-use, self-monitoring, and remote care.

I am happy to say that our newest eye tracking solution — the Tobii IS5XT Integration Platform — provides me with a response to both of these questions. We developed this platform with device designers in mind. Running at 250Hz, it’s our fastest and most accurate eye tracking integration platform yet. Its robust tracking and small form factor make it ideal for building new products that solve previously unsolvable problems.

In this post, I talk about my vision for our new platform and the gaps this technology can fill.

New types of innovative and scalable solutions

The Tobii IS5XT provides healthcare device developers with a platform to leverage eye movement research and build a range of high-speed portable assessment solutions. At 250Hz, it offers the accuracy needed to detect rapid eye movements and detailed pupil changes. With each eye tracked individually, IS5XT provides the data and form factor to solve problems that haven’t been solvable until now.

Assessments without restrictions

Irregular eye movements are one of the tell-tale signs of Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. These often-microscopic eye-movement abnormalities can be so subtle, especially in the early stages of a disease, that accurate detection with the human eye is not practically possible. And that’s where eye tracking comes in.

Depending on the condition and its progression, research into neurodegenerative diseases has revealed that assessment solutions can leverage a number of measurements. Some of the primary candidates are rapid eye movements including saccades, microsaccades, and smooth pursuit, as well as microscopic changes in the pupil size and gaze position of each eye.

Eye tracking can deliver these measurements at varying levels of accuracy and granularity. In principle, higher eye tracking sampling rates produce greater accuracy and more granular data. So, depending on your application needs, moderate sampling rates (60–90Hz) may suffice. Higher sampling rates (120–250Hz) might be best when small measurements, such as saccades, are needed and rates above 250Hz can be required for measuring microsaccades.

Our new integration platform delivers data points with a high level of precision and with a dual-camera system that provides freedom of head movement. Sat in front of a device embedded with an IS5XT, people can relax. They don’t have to restrict their movements, lean on a chin rest, or keep their heads completely still for the system to capture their eye movements. I think that’s going to be a welcome relief for people with reduced control over their physical actions.

Ease of scalability

One of the things I am excited about is the fact that our IS5XT platform is compatible with Tobii Pro eye trackers — a significant point because it allows you to scale. What I mean by that is you can start testing new ideas by collecting research data with Tobii Pro eye trackers. And as they are mobile, you can gather data in any setting (which I think is excellent because it will enable you to include people with mobility issues and observe them in familiar and comfortable surroundings). You can move directly from research to developing a prototype with the IS5XT platform embedded, safe in the knowledge that you’ll get the same data performance, easing the path to scalable commercialization.

But scalability doesn’t stop there. Because Tobii provides the full spectrum of sampling frequencies, you can use your research and overall system architecture to create multiple commercial products. Developing with our Stream Engine Interface, the API for all our integration platforms — Tobii Integration Platforms IS5XT, and IS5 — makes it possible to build compatible applications for high-end assessment systems designed for specialized hospital use, mid-range solutions for clinics and health centers, as well as portable remote-care devices.

Two cameras

One of the expansions we’ve made to the Tobii IS5XT Integration Platform is the twin camera system. This is one of the core technologies for accurate eye tracking, helping devices built with IS5XT to meet comfort needs. Compared with the IS5, which runs on a single camera, the IS5XT’s twin-camera solution generates more image data, making it possible to raise tracking robustness, as well as accurate calculation of the (z-axis) distance between the user and the screen. You can calibrate for each eye separately and extract real-time gaze streams and pupil diameter on a per-eye basis — promoting the development of assessment solutions for stroke patients and atypical Parkinsonian disorders.

Find out more

With a slim form factor, the IS5XT fits the bezel of most screens. The freedom of head movement it offers together with 250Hz* tracking frequency provides a platform for building new products that solve previously unsolvable problems. If you want to find out more or download the technical specification, visit Tobii Integration Platform IS5XT.

*Tobii IS5XT can also be set to run at 60 or 120Hz.