The Eye Tribe

I have tried several times (more than 20) and got this message each time. I am on Windows 7 (32 bit). The heartbeat panel shows activity. Any ideas? Would changing vertical and horizontal alignment options help any? The tracker is positioned below my screen, as suggested.

I use reading glasses, but have tried calibration with and without glasses. I am using settings for max number of points and max time.

Should the user's head be kept motionless, or is it OK to move the head when the point changes?

Some additional information: The calibrator that comes with the driver package will *not* calibrate. I was able to achieve calibration through the sample in "TETWinSamples-master", but unfortunately, the precision is not great.

Although this is an obviously quality hardware product, there is a dearth of information on *how* to use it. Please provide helpful information. For example, is it better to move the head to follow the dots during calibration, or to keep still?

In order to achieve a good calibration you need to have good tracking when you look around on the screen. The UI should look something like this:



What screen size and resolution are you using? Screens bigger than 24" might introduce issues when you look at the top part of the screen.

It doesn't matter that you make natural head movements while you calibrate, but in general you should not move too much (e.g. to avoid falling outside the field of view of the sensor).

We are preparing more guides and screencasts to help you guys with these things, but for now you can check out this: http://dev.theeyetribe.com/start/

Javier, thanks for your attention.

I cannot get calibration to work, even with the calibrator sample. (It had worked for a while.) This is really frustrating. Here's the screenshot from my UI:



For example, what do the options for Vertical Alignment and Horizontal Alignment do? What are the implications for selecting Stretch vs Center, or the other options?

What is "Start in demo mode" do? Mouse gaze and Mouse smooth? None of this is explained anywhere.

Your screenshot shows that the software is not tracking your eyes, hence the red color of the TrackBox and the "eyes not found" symbol. So the first thing is to get the system to track you. For that, you need to make sure that the device is correctly pointing at your face as shown in http://dev.theeyetribe.com/start/ Please note that the device needs to be tilted upwards so that the plexiglass side is pointing at you.

When you have good tracking, your eyes are drawn on the TrackBox, which also turns green to indicate things are working. Then you can run a calibration.

The Alignment options are used when the Calibration area size is smaller than the full resolution of the screen. That is, in your case you could select a calibration area of 1200x800, and using the Alignment options you can place it wherever on the screen you want it, for instance centered in the bottom.

Demo mode is the walkthrough mode that is shown the first time you run the software, and which also shows a guide on how to set up the hardware.

Mouse gaze allows you to control the mouse with your eye gaze once you have calibrated. Mouse smooth enables a smoothing function on the estimated gaze coordinates that removes noise and jitter.

Again, we are working on guides and screencasts to explain the different options, but I hope this helps for now

My UI is *mostly* never green.

If I try to change the position of the device while the UI is running, will red turn to green in real-time, or will I have to restart the UI?

Restarting the UI is a pain because it hangs.

The UI updates in real time. The TrackBox draws the eyes as you move around. Ideally you would place yourself and the device such that the eyes are more or less centered on the TrackBox.

How far from the device are you sitting? Have you tried moving the head a little bit (e.g. closer or further away)?

I am about 25 to 30 inches from the tracker.

My question is this: Will the UI change from complete red (as shown in my screenshot), to complete green (as shown in yours) in real time?

Also, you mention that calibration cannot be performed unless the UI is green. But the "calibrate" button is functional. If what you say is true, shouldn't the calibrate button be greyed out and disabled?

Try moving a bit closer and see if that helps. Also, make sure you can see your face reflected on the plexiglass.

The UI changes in real time. When there is tracking it will become green and display two eyes as they are tracked.

Even though the Calibrate button is not automatically disabled when there is no tracking, if the user tries to calibrate the system will return an error (due to lack of tracking).

I am giving up. The quality of the software is not acceptable (even for early adapters, power-users). I am going to wait until you do another release.