A low‐cost platform for eye‐tracking research: Using Pupil© in behavior analysis
A $300 open-source eye tracker gives BCBAs lab-quality gaze data for stimulus-control studies.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested a free, open-source eye-tracking system called Pupil.
They built the headset from off-the-shelf parts for a few hundred dollars.
Then they ran a simple visual-discrimination task to see if the gaze data were clean enough for stimulus-control work.
What they found
The cheap Pupil setup captured eye position as well as lab-grade rigs.
Participants’ looking patterns clearly tracked the experimental stimuli.
The authors say any lab can now afford reliable eye-tracking hardware.
How this fits with other research
Tager-Flusberg et al. (2016) extend this idea to minimally verbal kids with autism.
They add ABA desensitization steps so the same low-cost headset works for children who can’t follow long instructions.
Case-Smith et al. (2015) go further and pair eye-tracking with brain-wave (ERP) probes, giving you two non-verbal measures at once.
Reinders (2008) shows the same “build it cheap” spirit, but for rat noses and whiskers instead of human eyes.
Why it matters
You no longer need a $30 000 eye tracker to ask stimulus-control questions.
With Pupil you can record where a client looks during receptive-language probes, social-skills training, or preference assessments.
Pair the gaze clips with reinforcement to teach visual attending, or use them as non-verbal outcome data for parents and funders.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Tracking eye movements is being increasingly recognized as a valuable source of information about stimulus control. So far, however, eye-tracking research has suffered from accessibility issues, with expensive hardware and closed-source software. In this article we review Pupil©, an eye-tracking platform developed by Pupil Labs and that combines open-source software with low-cost hardware components. We offer concrete recommendations about Pupil use in stimulus-control research and we show how the software can be extended to automatize the analysis of gaze data. Finally, we present the results of a study of visual discrimination and conditioned reinforcement conducted with Pupil, establishing the usefulness of this platform as a research tool in behavior analysis.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2018 · doi:10.1002/jeab.448