Upgrading to USB 3.0 Advice or External Cards/Hardware for Compatibility

[Stephen]

Currently, I’m using Windows 7 (Boot Camp) on a 17″ mid-2010 MacBook Pro. How can I get Tobii Eye Trackers working with my machine? Is it possible to upgrade my computer to 3.0 prots? Are there external USB 3.0 cards or converters I can use? I sincerely want to use the Eyex, but I can’t afford a new computer at the moment.

Thanks for the help!

[Konstantin [Tobii]]

Hi there,
sorry to hear you’re having troubles.
Unfortunately there’s not so much I can recommend you. External USB 3.0 cards for laptops are in general very tricky as they mostly do not deliver the entire USB 3.0 bandwidth, which the Tobii EyeX actually requires. Laptops obviously have the problem that it’s not possible to upgrade or exchange hardware, very well.

Generally speaking, we do not support Mac as well as Bootcamp.
Here we had some issue which was a little related, maybe helps somehow: http://developer.tobii.com/community/forums/topic/using-eyex-in-parallels-environment/

[Stephen]

Thank you for your reply. I thought that might be the case. I’m actually going to build my own machine and would like to use Tobii integrally with it, as well as future eye tracking devices as they improve. The motherboard will, of course, have native USB 3.0 support. Since I have control over the construction components, before I order the parts, are there any technical specifications you recommend aside from the minimum requirements on the website or that would optimize the system for Tobii?

[Konstantin [Tobii]]

Hi!
If you buy a new motherboard, you shouldn’t have any problems.
USB 3.0 problems are more typical with systems which are maybe 2 – 3 years old as USB 3.0 has improved a lot and the drivers are not automatically updated by Windows update. So what happens is that the drivers installed are maybe 3 years old and they can’t keep up with the actual USB 3.0 bandwidth, which e.g. the Tobii EyeX requires.

However, there are a few cards we have tested so you can have a look in our Support section: Supported USB 3.0 pci express cards

/konstantin

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