The Tobii EyeX

[Hobnobs]

So I have had my Tobii EyeX for about a week now and have to say that after a period of getting used to the difference between head tracking and eye tracking, I've grown to like it.

 

It started off as a bit of a punt. I had seen it used in Elite Dangerous and wondered if it was a good alternative to the Track IR. I have to say I have struggled with head tracking solutions and found myself just not bothering in the end. I just found it tedious. The fact you have to wear something on your head is just a turn off for me even though I'm used to wearing headset when flying for real. I'd just rather not when in front of my computer. Added to that, moving your head while still having your eyes fixed just doesn't feel natural.

 

So EyeX doesn't require you wear a hat. It's tracking device fits to your monitor and the software tracks your eye movement, where you look, so no head movement required.

 

I installed it and got it working with FSX Steam. It started off badly, I was still moving my head rather than moving my eyes or worse, both at the same time. Once I had trained myself to keep my head still, I was moving my eyes consciously rather than naturally like you would, well, normally. The first few days I must have looked like a psychopath with my crazy darting eyes. The view would dart around the cockpit and I would try desperately to correct, then overcorrect. Bad things would start to happen to my virtual flight. I'm sorry to say that some passengers may have died, but a full investigation is now underway with pilot error the likely cause.

 

I was about to resign that no head tracking or eye tracking solutions work for me. I have the attention span of a 2 year old at the best of times, so it wasn't looking good for the EyeX.

 

But I stuck with it and now it's starting to come

to together. I don't think about looking, I just look and the movement is pretty fluid. I still think I have a ways to go but it's looking like I have finally found a good solution to the problem of wanting to look around without using a HAT switch or head tracking, which I detest.

 

More experiences to come including a video if this thread generates any interest amongst all you seasoned Guys and Gals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MarkH]

This technology must logically solve the same problem as TrackIR - i.e. to be able to display a field of view that is greater than your monitor's field of view. Inevitably this requires some kind of compromise and I don't think the 'infinite screen' plugin is good enough. I would argue that it's less natural than TrackIR. As best I can tell it seems to start panning the view when you look off-centre and it keeps panning until you look back to the centre. This reminds me of using one of those IBM ThinkPad 'jelly-tot' controllers to move the mouse pointer, which is also very fiddly and unnatural however refined the technology. (If you extend the analogy a bit further, the jelly-tot is the EyeX, a track-pad is TrackIR and a mouse is the real thing.)

 

So while I was impressed by the technology, in practice the EyeX it seems little more than a prototype at the moment. Right off the bat you're limited to a single monitor (max 27", I think) and you have to sit pretty close to it to get reliable tracking (my desktop screen is 80cm away and that's not close enough). I was sceptical that it would be useful for FSX but I was kind of hopeful it would be good for general PC stuff. I don't think it's ready yet, particularly for precision. The various test tools it comes with are kind of interesting (more interesting than the motley collection of actual applications available to date), particularly to show how approximate the tracking actually is (not to mention how much your eyes jump around).

 

The sequel is that I sent mine back because it almost set my computer on fire, although on balance the evidence points towards that being the cheap CSL USB3 card I bought to run it. (Tobii agreed to refund me, but six weeks later I am still waiting.)

[MarkH]

On 3/16/2016 at 1:42 PM, MarkH said:

The sequel is that I sent mine back because it almost set my computer on fire, although on balance the evidence points towards that being the cheap CSL USB3 card I bought to run it. (Tobii agreed to refund me, but six weeks later I am still waiting.)

 

And the sequel to the sequel is that the EyeX was not faulty, the CSL card apparently has set other people's computers on fire and Tobii evidently decided to keep my money. Thankfully PayPal was helpful in holding Tobii Technology AB to account.

[Captain Z]

Hobnobs,

 

Thank you for letting us know how it's going so far. I've been eyeing (pun intended) the Tobii for a while now, and waiting to hear from others how it performs with Flight Sims.

 

I, like you, am a bit averse to having stuff on my head to look around. So I'll be interested to hear how things progress for you. Glad it's at least starting to work out.

 

Happy Flying