Swedish tech company Tobii releases $229 eye tracker that may improve gamers’ skills
New York (CNN)Eye-tracking technology has helped people with medical conditions like autism, traumatic brain injuries and ALS, or amyotropic lateral sclerosis, communicate with others. Swedish start-up Tobii Technology , a global leader in the transformative field of eye tracking, offers those kinds of devices not just for medical use […]
In June, Tobii released the Tobii Eye Tracker 5, which costs $229 and has improved recalibration. It uses an algorithm for tracking the eye’s patterns with a camera, enabling the software to pinpoint the direction of a subject’s gaze, and over time, patterns of behavior. It can track players’ eyes and the direction of their heads, helping them determine where their blind spots are.
“If we lose your gaze, then we are much, much faster in finding your eyes again,” which helps with games such as “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” and others, Martin Lindgren, head of gaming at Tobii, told CNN Business.
The company reported revenue of $163 million in 2019, up 9% from the previous year, after currency adjustments.
To set up the Tobii Eye Tracker 5, the device, which includes a series of sensors and two cameras, must be either magnetically attached or mounted onto a monitor with its USB cable plugged in. It will register your gaze by asking you to stare at specific points on the screen.
Mobalytics uses the data fed from Tobii’s eye tracker to determine if the user (in this case, me) stares too long at the same spot on a screen, whether I’m aware of my surroundings and what enemies may be lurking and how much information I can absorb.
Just connecting an eye tracker to a game is enough to improve my gameplay, I found, even by a small margin. When you gaze at the screen with the eye tracker, a bubble representing your focal point floats across the screen.
