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Comparing eye movements recorded by search coil and infrared eye tracking.

Schmitt KU, Muser MH, Lanz C, Walz F, Schwarz U

Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland, schmitt@ethz.ch.

OBJECTIVE: The performance of a new video-based infrared eye tracker (IR) was compared to the magnetic search coil technique (SC). Since the IR offers interesting possibilities as a diagnostic tool in neuro-ophthalmology, it was investigated whether the new device has overcome shortcomings that were reported from former IR systems. METHODS: Horizontal saccades were recorded using the IR and the SC. The IR allowed eye movement recordings at different sampling rates ranging from 250 Hz to 1000 Hz while the SC recorded at 1000 Hz. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the IR and the SC were in good agreement and produced similar results. In contrast to other studies, the influence of the sampling rate of the IR was small. The saccade main-sequences did not show significant differences. The latency times observed for both systems were mainly in the short-latency range.

Published 31 January 2007 in J Clin Monit Comput, 21(1): 49-53.
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