EyeX on linux

[Sly]

Since the eyeX doesn’t work on windows for me, I tried it on linux, whith the SDK for linux.
But ./fwupgrade –auto –info-only
gives :

Tobii Firmware Upgrade Tool
205 No eye tracker could be found
No tracker connected

But I can see it with lsusb :
Bus 004 Device 005: ID 2104:0010

I would try “tet-usb://” but I don’t know the syntax and what to put there ?

[Jenny [Tobii]]

Hi,

I’m sorry to hear that you have not been able to make your EyeX Controller work on Windows. Windows is the only supported operating system for the EyeX Controller at the present time.

Although it will show up as a USB device on Linux, we do not have the necessary software in place to communicate with it on Linux.

[Sly]

Hi,

So what is the linux SDK for ?

[Jenny [Tobii]]

Hi again,

Here comes a long answer for your short question 🙂

There are currently two types of eye trackers and two lines of SDKs supported through the Tobii Developer Zone:

Eye trackers:
– Tobii EyeX Controller
– Tobii REX

SDKs:
– EyeX SDK
– Gaze SDK

The Gaze SDK is the low-level multi-platform SDK, and the Tobii REX is the accompanying multi-platform eye tracker. These products have been around for about 1 and a half years.

The EyeX line of products is a new line of software and hardware released in 2014, including the EyeX Controller eye tracker, the EyeX Engine runtime environment and EyeX SDKs for C/C++, Unity and .NET.

Since the EyeX products presently only work on Windows, the EyeX Controller only works with Windows based SDKs: the EyeX SDKs and the Gaze SDKs for Windows.

The Tobii REX on the other hand, currently works with all SDKs on all platforms, including the Gaze SDK for Linux.

The number of platforms, operating systems and programming languages supported by EyeX are expected to grow.

[Simon Zsolt]

Hi! 🙂 I have a question regarding to Tobii REX. Since it is a multi-platform device, i suppose it also would work on Ubuntu. The question would be, that can I access programatically (through the API) the data regarding to the position of the eyes, or I will need to do myself the whole low level filtering? Is it possible also wiht eyeX on Windows?

[Jenny [Tobii]]

Hi Simon,

Yes, there are Linux drivers for Tobii REX and a Gaze SDK for Linux that should work on all modern Linux distributions, including Ubuntu.

Eye position data is available both through the EyeX SDK and through the Gaze SDK, but there are some important differences, mainly in how much effort the application developer has to put in to get things working. So, even if you don’t have to do low level filtering there are more to take care of when using the Gaze SDK:

EyeX SDK: The EyeX SDK provides a data stream for Eye Position where the eye position data is given per eye, in millimeters, in a 3D coordinate system which has its origin in the middle of the screen, with the x and y axes parallel to the screen plane, and the z axis pointing orthogonally out from the screen plane towards the user. Since this coordinate system gives the eye positions relative to the screen, it is straightforward to use the position data in the application.

Gaze SDK: The application using the Gaze SDK needs to configure an Active Display Area programmatically. This means providing three space coordinates corresponding to the upper left, upper right and lower left corners of a rectangular screen plane. The coordinates has to be given in millimeters in the User Coordinate System (UCS), which has its origin in the mid front of the eye tracker device, with the x and y axes parallel to the front surface plane of the eye tracker, and the z axis pointing orthogonally outwards from the front plane. Please note that the front surface of the eye tracker normally is tilted upwards to point towards the user’s eyes, and that this means that there is an angle between the axes of the UCS and the plane of the Active Display Area. The Eye Position data provided by the Gaze SDK is given in millimeters in UCS coordinates. The application normally have to transform these coordinates to coordinates relative to the Active Display Area before they can be used in the application. The validity of the eye position data also have to be checked by checking validity codes in the data packages.

[bishop]

Is there any chance of an EyeX driver for Linux in the future? We are a group of labs evaluating the EyeX currently, but a driver for Linux (just the driver and a C/C++ API) would make life so much easier in order to integrate the device with our software.

While an alternative exists (the REX), the cost of the EyeX makes it much more attractive for volume purchases and easier to standardise upon it.

[Robert [Tobii]]

Hi @bishop,

That sounds like a feature request. Please see this thread.

[Alexandre]

Hello, @jennytobii. And regarding the Tracker 4C? Will it supports Linux in some way?

[Grant [Tobii]]

Hi @alexandre, Sorry to say we have to plans to include Linux support in the near future for the Tobii Tech peripheral range as we are trying to focus for the time being on gaming.

If someone greatly needs to use eye tracking on a linux system, we would forward them to Tobii Pro business department who do indeed produce the necessary hardware and software to run on this platform.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

[Christopher Reay]

is there some reason that the open source community can’t develop a driver for Linux? perhaps using done dlls from wine?

you mention hardware in the last comment, but I’m not sure what that would mean in this context?

thanks for the amazing product

[Author]

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