Tobii Pro introduces Tobii Pro Fusion – a portable and powerful eye tracker for scientific research

Tobii Pro, the global leader in eye tracking research solutions, today launched Tobii Pro Fusion, a fully portable, powerful eye tracker that enables researchers to run lab standard experiments in places not previously accessible.

Tobii Pro Fusion takes Tobii’s latest advancements in eye tracking technology and puts them into a discreet, ultra-light peripheral device that can be connected to any screen via USB. This lets more people participate in eye tracking studies and allows researchers to be nimbler when studying human behavior outside the lab in fields such as psychology, developmental studies, medical research, cognitive science and neuroscience.

“By introducing a solution that is truly portable, researchers are empowered to collect data from participants in their authentic environments, whether that is in a school, in a hospital, at a coffee shop, in their home or in remote locations,” said Ellen Tjälldin, VP of Scientific Research Segment, Tobii Pro. “The aim is to help our users expand their research and enable them to do data collection in places they haven’t gone before.”

“To reach participants we travel to kindergartens and schools out in the community, which puts a lot of demand on the eye tracking equipment being portable and easy to set up. You want to collect the data in an environment where children feel most comfortable while trusting that you return to the lab with accurate data to answer you research questions. I’m excited to incorporate Tobii Pro Fusion to our research toolbox and see how it can help us take our research even further,” said Julian Schmitz, Professor at the Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, University of Leipzig.

The ability to capture accurate eye tracking data quickly and easily is critical for researchers studying human behavior. The new Tobii Pro Fusion eye tracker was designed to empower researchers with the highest quality data through patented eye tracking technology from Tobii, unearthing new possibilities to gain better insights into human behavior.

“Our research focus is understanding how the brain reacts to social interactions where we use eye tracking in combination with EEG and fNIRS. Our study participants are people with Autism Spectrum disorders or Schizophrenia where having an eye tracking system that is unobtrusive and allows for head movement is imperative. The dual eye tracking cameras, sampling rate and discreet design with Tobii Pro Fusion will open up the possibilities for more extensive research on our demographic", said Dr. J. Adam Noah, Yale School of Medicine, Brain Function Lab.

Tobii Pro Fusion features include:

• Fully portable which increases the populations that can be part of an eye tracking study and facilitating research that avoids the WEIRD (Western, Educated and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries) sample bias.
  
  
• Stereoscopic system with two eye tracking cameras tolerates larger degrees of head movement and makes Tobii Pro Fusion ideal for studies with children or any subject that can’t sit still. Tobii’s 3D eye models significantly reduce signal noise levels, resulting in high quality of gaze and pupil data even when a participant moves and gaze angle changes.
  
  
• Bright and dark pupil illumination which results in superior tracking robustness regardless of eye shapes, ethnicity or age.
  
  
• Ultra-light with USB connectivity allows researchers to connect easily to a laptop or desktop, enabling simple and flexible data collection. The Tobii EyeChip™ enables embedded processing of eye tracking calculations in a light format. 374 mm x 18 mm x 13.7 mm (LxHxW) in size and only weighing 168 g.
  
  
• Sampling rate up to 250Hz, which enables researchers to conduct studies that require higher granularity and resolution of eye movements including saccade-based research.
  
  
• Software compatibility with Tobii Pro Lab gives researchers a comprehensive research tool, from the design phase all the way through the process of data and analysis phase. Pro Lab also facilitates the combination of eye tracking with biometric data streams like EEG, GSR and ECG.

More information:

• Watch a video about Tobii Pro Fusion
• Read the blog post: Overcoming the WEIRD bias in eye tracking studies: How to take research out of the WEIRD and into the (real) world”
• Download images