The effect of pupil size on data quality in head-mounted eye trackers
Salari, Mohammadhossein ; Niehorster, Diederick C. LU
; Nyström, Marcus
LU
and Bednarik, Roman
(2025)
In Behavior Research Methods
58(17).
- Abstract
- Changes in pupil size can lead to apparent gaze shifts in data recorded with video-based eye trackers in the absence of physical eye rotation. This is known as the pupil-size artifact (PSA). While the PSA is widely reported in desktop eye trackers, it is unknown whether and to what extent it occurs in head-mounted eye trackers. In this paper, we examined the effects of pupil size variations on eye-tracking data quality in four head-mounted eye trackers: the Pupil Core, the Pupil Neon, the SMI ETG 2w, and the Tobii Pro Glasses 2, in addition to a widely used desktop eye tracker, the SR Research EyeLink 1000 Plus. Participants viewed a central target on a monitor while we systematically varied the screen brightness to induce controlled pupil... (More)
- Changes in pupil size can lead to apparent gaze shifts in data recorded with video-based eye trackers in the absence of physical eye rotation. This is known as the pupil-size artifact (PSA). While the PSA is widely reported in desktop eye trackers, it is unknown whether and to what extent it occurs in head-mounted eye trackers. In this paper, we examined the effects of pupil size variations on eye-tracking data quality in four head-mounted eye trackers: the Pupil Core, the Pupil Neon, the SMI ETG 2w, and the Tobii Pro Glasses 2, in addition to a widely used desktop eye tracker, the SR Research EyeLink 1000 Plus. Participants viewed a central target on a monitor while we systematically varied the screen brightness to induce controlled pupil size changes. All head-mounted eye trackers exhibited PSA, with apparent gaze shifts ranging from 0.94 for the Pupil Neon to 3.46 for the Pupil Core. Except for the Pupil Neon, all eye trackers exhibited a significant change in accuracy due to pupil size variations. Precision measures showed device-specific effects of pupil size changes, with some eye trackers performing better in the bright condition and others in the dark condition. These findings demonstrated that, just like desktop eye trackers, head-mounted video-based eye trackers exhibited PSA. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f60886e1-f2cc-45fe-8cf8-6df84ba79795
- author
- Salari, Mohammadhossein
; Niehorster, Diederick C.
LU
; Nyström, Marcus
LU
and Bednarik, Roman
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-12-04
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- eye tracking, pupil size artefact (PSA), head-mounted eye trackers, data quality
- in
- Behavior Research Methods
- volume
- 58
- issue
- 17
- article number
- 17
- pages
- 16 pages
- publisher
- Springer
- ISSN
- 1554-3528
- DOI
- 10.3758/s13428-025-02880-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f60886e1-f2cc-45fe-8cf8-6df84ba79795
- alternative location
- https://link.springer.com/10.3758/s13428-025-02880-3
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-04 00:10:39
- date last changed
- 2025-12-11 14:54:35
@article{f60886e1-f2cc-45fe-8cf8-6df84ba79795,
abstract = {{Changes in pupil size can lead to apparent gaze shifts in data recorded with video-based eye trackers in the absence of physical eye rotation. This is known as the pupil-size artifact (PSA). While the PSA is widely reported in desktop eye trackers, it is unknown whether and to what extent it occurs in head-mounted eye trackers. In this paper, we examined the effects of pupil size variations on eye-tracking data quality in four head-mounted eye trackers: the Pupil Core, the Pupil Neon, the SMI ETG 2w, and the Tobii Pro Glasses 2, in addition to a widely used desktop eye tracker, the SR Research EyeLink 1000 Plus. Participants viewed a central target on a monitor while we systematically varied the screen brightness to induce controlled pupil size changes. All head-mounted eye trackers exhibited PSA, with apparent gaze shifts ranging from 0.94 for the Pupil Neon to 3.46 for the Pupil Core. Except for the Pupil Neon, all eye trackers exhibited a significant change in accuracy due to pupil size variations. Precision measures showed device-specific effects of pupil size changes, with some eye trackers performing better in the bright condition and others in the dark condition. These findings demonstrated that, just like desktop eye trackers, head-mounted video-based eye trackers exhibited PSA.}},
author = {{Salari, Mohammadhossein and Niehorster, Diederick C. and Nyström, Marcus and Bednarik, Roman}},
issn = {{1554-3528}},
keywords = {{eye tracking; pupil size artefact (PSA); head-mounted eye trackers; data quality}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
number = {{17}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Behavior Research Methods}},
title = {{The effect of pupil size on data quality in head-mounted eye trackers}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-025-02880-3}},
doi = {{10.3758/s13428-025-02880-3}},
volume = {{58}},
year = {{2025}},
}