Tobii Eye Tracker 20% off

[Paul K]

Available until January 2nd 2023.

https://gaming.tobii.com/product/eye-tracker-5/

Down from £259 to £207. I could no longer resist.

[Vc Ten]

Be interested how you get on with it Paul.
Been thinking about one for some time
Dale

[Tako_Kichi]

I was looking at those too but unfortunately they don't have a supplier in Canuckistan and shipping charges from Europe were extortionate.

[PeteP]

I could no longer resist.

Neither could I, Paul. With the discount plus a very generous Amazon gift card I got from my daughter for Christmas and free next day delivery...

Pete

[PeteP]

I was looking at those too but unfortunately they don't have a supplier in Canuckistan and shipping charges from Europe were extortionate.

Don't want to get you into trouble with your treasurer, Larry, but Amazon Canada seem to stock it for around 400 CAD including import duty and delivery by 9 January. https://www.amazon.ca/Tobii-Eye-Tracker ... 41&sr=8-1

[Tako_Kichi]

It's still a bit pricey and I am not sure it would work in my situation anyway as I have a large picture window almost directly behind me.

Over the years I've had three TrackIR systems (1xTIR4, 2xTIR5) and they all died the same way in that they went 'blind' in one eye i.e. the sensor would work fine for up/down, in/out and right but if I looked left the screen would freeze after just a few degrees of movement. I contacted the TrackIR support guys and they could offer no solution as they had never heard of that problem before. It was like one of the two IR sensors on the board would overheat and then lose it's detection ability. When I took the units apart there was distinct discoloration on the board(s) around one of the two IR sensing chips as if it had been getting too hot, perhaps overloaded by the IR coming in from the window.

I finally switched to the Track Hat system but that wasn't very successful either as the low resolution IR camera they used would get washed out by the same picture window and tracking would go haywire.

I loved my TIR systems when they worked but they burnt out too frequently to keep wasting money on and they always seemed to die just after the warranty ran out hence looking at the Tobii system as an alternative.

[Paul K]

I could no longer resist.

Neither could I, Paul. With the discount plus a very generous Amazon gift card I got from my daughter for Christmas and free next day delivery...

Pete

Pete, I looked at Amazon, but there was no 20% discount at the time - maybe that's changed. Anyway, with your daughter's gift card added on top, looks like you've got yourself a very nice deal. Mine is sitting at a DHL depot in Sweden at the moment, but should be delivered on Thursday. By the way, if you haven't seen this, it's a good guide to setting up and adjusting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Y4eySt3Yk

Larry - apparently, Tobii is less prone to interference from daylight than Track IR. Can't say for certain,so it might be worth investigating further.

[PeteP]

Thanks for the video link, Paul - looks to be very helpful. It's due to arrive sometime today but I'm not sure how much time I'll have for it until after NYD.

Incidentally, it was showing full price on Amazon but there was a small tick box which said something like "Apply Christmas Discount" which gave the required amount off.

Pete

[Paul K]

Well chaps, there it sits, attached to the bottom of the monitor. It arrived a day early, and I've spent a couple of hours trying it out in MSFS. First impressions are good - it works straight out of the box, downloads the software when you first plug it in, and is a doddle to set up and calibrate. I have it plugged into a USB port at the back of the monitor, but it comes with an extension lead to go to the PC if needed. The mounting can be adjusted to tilt the Tobii unit up and down

MSFS detects Tobii straight away, and is configured using sensitivity sliders. RESET and On/Off can be mapped to the keyboard. Performance in MSFS is every bit as good as TrackIR. Much more natural, in fact, because it tracks both eye and head movement. So, your eyes move first, followed by your head - just as in the real world. As an example, when scanning the instruments, you just move your eyes, and then maybe your head a little to look out the left or right windows. You don't have to point your face at things, as you do with TrackIR. That said, you can adjust the percentage combination of eye movement and head movement: move the slider all the way to the left, and it will only follow your head, move it the other way and it will only follow your eyes. It'll be interesting to experiment further with that combination.

I had a problem with looking down ( pitch axis ), but I adjusted the angle of the monitor, titled the unit up a little, and re-centred it - all sorted. There are some reports that it has difficulty when you are looking directly behind you - as you would when "checking your six" in a combat flight sim. I have no problems whatsoever - in fact, such are my initial sensitivity settings that my view goes well past the 180 degree mark, almost round to 270 or 90 degrees, depending on which way I turn my head.

Another thing that people have pointed out is that the view isn't steady enough when programming an FMC -there are too many minor movements from eyes and head. Well, that's no different from TrackIR in my opinion. I always paused TrackIR when doing anything like that, and the same can be done with Tobii.

The biggest advantage is the obvious one - no hat and clip to wear, no emitter contraption on the side of your headphones, no cables, nothing. I often didn't bother with TrackIR when flying for an hour or so because I couldn't be bothered with all the paraphernalia. With Tobii, you just activate the app, and you're ready to go. I haven't used it in any other game yet, but will try it in Arma 3. It works in P3D and X-Plane, by the way.

I've yet to come across any real problems. These might surface as I use it more, or in other games, but so far I'm very pleased with it. And, because of the convenience, I'll be using it a heck of a lot more than TrackIR.

[Tako_Kichi]

I see that TrackHat released a new product on the first of January that may be a challenger to the Tobii system : https://www.trackhat.org/sensorv2

It will be interesting to see how it performs once the product gets into the hands of reviewers. I bought two of the older TrackHat systems (1 for me, 1 for my wife) and we used them in farm sim, trucking sims and of course FSX for me and they worked well considering they were a lower cost alternative to TIR5. The biggest let-downs were the lower grade cameras compared to TIR5 (PS2 based I believe) and slightly buggy open source tracking software. Hopefully this new system is a success but I don't expect to be buying into the initial release as I want to see how it compares first. I've been an early adopter of stuff in the past and then regretted it later!