The mean point of vergence is biased under projection

The point of interest in three-dimensional space in eye tracking is often computed based on intersecting the lines of sight with geometry, or finding the point closest to the two lines of sight. We first start by theoretical analysis with synthetic simulations. We show that the mean point of vergenc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xi Wang, Kenneth Holmqvist, Marc Alexa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-09-01
Series:Journal of Eye Movement Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/4485
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850274459002339328
author Xi Wang
Kenneth Holmqvist
Marc Alexa
author_facet Xi Wang
Kenneth Holmqvist
Marc Alexa
author_sort Xi Wang
collection DOAJ
description The point of interest in three-dimensional space in eye tracking is often computed based on intersecting the lines of sight with geometry, or finding the point closest to the two lines of sight. We first start by theoretical analysis with synthetic simulations. We show that the mean point of vergence is generally biased for centrally symmetric errors and that the bias depends on the horizontal vs. vertical error distribution of the tracked eye positions. Our analysis continues with an evaluation on real experimental data. The error distributions seem to be different among individuals but they generally leads to the same bias towards the observer. And it tends to be larger with an increased viewing distance. We also provided a recipe to minimize the bias, which applies to general computations of eye ray intersection. These findings not only have implications for choosing the calibration method in eye tracking experiments and interpreting the observed eye movements data; but also suggest to us that we shall consider the mathematical models of calibration as part of the experiment.
format Article
id doaj-art-91cd929a03294ad1b745f2c890f6851f
institution OA Journals
issn 1995-8692
language English
publishDate 2019-09-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Journal of Eye Movement Research
spelling doaj-art-91cd929a03294ad1b745f2c890f6851f2025-08-20T01:51:07ZengMDPI AGJournal of Eye Movement Research1995-86922019-09-0112410.16910/jemr.12.4.2The mean point of vergence is biased under projectionXi Wang0Kenneth Holmqvist1Marc Alexa2TU BerlinRegensburg UniversityTU BerlinThe point of interest in three-dimensional space in eye tracking is often computed based on intersecting the lines of sight with geometry, or finding the point closest to the two lines of sight. We first start by theoretical analysis with synthetic simulations. We show that the mean point of vergence is generally biased for centrally symmetric errors and that the bias depends on the horizontal vs. vertical error distribution of the tracked eye positions. Our analysis continues with an evaluation on real experimental data. The error distributions seem to be different among individuals but they generally leads to the same bias towards the observer. And it tends to be larger with an increased viewing distance. We also provided a recipe to minimize the bias, which applies to general computations of eye ray intersection. These findings not only have implications for choosing the calibration method in eye tracking experiments and interpreting the observed eye movements data; but also suggest to us that we shall consider the mathematical models of calibration as part of the experiment.https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/4485eye movementeye trackingfixationsgazevergencebias
spellingShingle Xi Wang
Kenneth Holmqvist
Marc Alexa
The mean point of vergence is biased under projection
Journal of Eye Movement Research
eye movement
eye tracking
fixations
gaze
vergence
bias
title The mean point of vergence is biased under projection
title_full The mean point of vergence is biased under projection
title_fullStr The mean point of vergence is biased under projection
title_full_unstemmed The mean point of vergence is biased under projection
title_short The mean point of vergence is biased under projection
title_sort mean point of vergence is biased under projection
topic eye movement
eye tracking
fixations
gaze
vergence
bias
url https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/4485
work_keys_str_mv AT xiwang themeanpointofvergenceisbiasedunderprojection
AT kennethholmqvist themeanpointofvergenceisbiasedunderprojection
AT marcalexa themeanpointofvergenceisbiasedunderprojection
AT xiwang meanpointofvergenceisbiasedunderprojection
AT kennethholmqvist meanpointofvergenceisbiasedunderprojection
AT marcalexa meanpointofvergenceisbiasedunderprojection