An Extended Method for Saccadic Eye Movement Measurements Using a Head-Mounted Display

Abstract

Saccadic eye movement is an important ability in our daily life and is especially important in driving and sports. Traditionally, the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test and the King–Devick (K-D) test have been used to measure saccadic eye movement, but these only involve measurements with “adjusted time”. Therefore, a different approach is required to obtain the eye movement speed and reaction rate in detail, as some are rapid eye movements, while others are slow actions, and vice versa. This study proposed an extended method that can acquire the “rest time” and “transfer time”, as well as the “adjusted time”, by implementing a virtual reality-based DEM test, using a FOVE virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD), equipped with an eye-tracking module. This approach was tested in 30 subjects with normal vision and no ophthalmologic disease by using a 2-diopter (50-cm) distance. This allowed for measurements of the “adjusted time” and the “rest time” for focusing on each target number character, the “transfer time” for moving to the next target number character, and recording of the gaze-tracking log. The results of this experiment showed that it was possible to analyze more parameters of the saccadic eye movement with the proposed method than with the traditional methods.

Application of eye-tracking systems integrated into immersive virtual reality and possible transfer to the sports sector - A systematic review

“…One study aimed to examine the VOR that stabilizes the gaze position during a gaze fixation while the head is moving. The authors also measured saccadic eye movements by using a method that is based on the "Developmental Eye Movement" (DEM) test [41]. Here, the saccades are divided into "Adapted Time", "Remaining Time", and "Transfer Time".…”

“…Visual search behavior is relevant for athlete performances, especially when using the parafoveal vision to gather more information at once [72]. The importance of saccadic eye movements is also mentioned in [41], which extended the measurement of saccades in the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test integrated into VR. The authors showed that more parameters could be extracted more easily since head movements are inevitable during natural behavior, and gaze analyses can be completed with fixed placed HMD on participants' heads.…”

“…The authors showed that more parameters could be extracted more easily since head movements are inevitable during natural behavior, and gaze analyses can be completed with fixed placed HMD on participants' heads. This enables collecting more detailed data such as the time the eyes stay on the target or the delay between perceiving the target and the initiated movement [41]. Being able to detect saccades and fixations could be informative concerning the role of different sources (foveal versus peripheral) during opponents' attacks [80].…”

The Design of an Intelligent Robotic Wheelchair Supporting People with Special Needs, Including for Their Visual System

“…The eye-tracking devices and facial expression recognition systems are still in development, with current models offering just a few practical facilities compared to the theoretical studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. In [16], Lee Y et al propose an extended method to determine the measurement of saccadic eye movement using an eye-tracking module in a virtual reality head-mounted display.…”

“…The eye-tracking devices and facial expression recognition systems are still in development, with current models offering just a few practical facilities compared to the theoretical studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. In [16], Lee Y et al propose an extended method to determine the measurement of saccadic eye movement using an eye-tracking module in a virtual reality head-mounted display. Sipatchin et al present a case study to test empirically and discuss the hardware capabilities and visual tracking limitations of a standard VR headset with built-in eye tracking for home use in ophthalmic applications [17].…”