The pyeTribe: Simultaneous eyetracking for economic games

Abstract

The recent introduction of inexpensive eyetrackers has opened up a wealth of opportunities for researchers to study attention in interactive tasks. No software package has previously been available to help researchers exploit those opportunities. We created “the pyeTribe,” a software package that offers, among others, the following features: first, a communication platform between many eyetrackers to allow for simultaneous recording of multiple participants; second, the simultaneous calibration of multiple eyetrackers without the experimenter’s supervision; third, data collection restricted to periods of interest, thus reducing the volume of data and easing analysis. We used a standard economic game (the public goods game) to examine the data quality and demonstrate the potential of our software package. Moreover, we conducted a modeling analysis, which illustrates how combining process and behavioral data can improve models of human decision-making behavior in social situations. Our software is open source.

Comparing eye trackers by correlating their eye-metric data

“…Thus, if a psychologist wants a perfectly working all-in-one solution, it may be reasonable to buy a more expensive device that also includes support from the company. In the long term, this argument might carry less weight, because free (libre) software for eye-tracking experiments and analysis already exists (Dalmaijer et al, 2013;Lejarraga et al, 2016;Peirce, 2009) and will likely become more accessible to nonprogrammers.…”

“…Universities could buy dozens of eye trackers that could be used in seminars on empirical experimentation, replicating classic experiments. Recently, Lejarraga et al (2016) made this potential a reality. They developed a framework that makes it possible to simultaneously track the eyes of several participants, such that one participant could see information based on the eye metrics of others.…”

“…The goal of affordable eye trackers is within reach. Recently, do-it-yourself systems with webcams have appeared (Burton, Albert, & Flynn, 2014;Petridis, Giannakopoulos, & Spyropoulos, 2013;Xu et al, 2015), free (libre) software flourishes (e.g., Dalmaijer, Mathôt, & Van der Stigchel, 2013;Lejarraga, Schulte-Mecklenbeck, & Smedema, 2016;Peirce, 2009), and manufacturers have started to offer low-cost, compact devices such as the EyeTribe (The Eye Tribe ApS, Copenhagen) and the Tobii EyeX (Tobii AB, Danderyd).…”

Eye-tracking en masse: Group user studies, lab infrastructure, and practices

“…Nowadays, technological advances and vendor competition are steadily lowering the price of the eye-tracking technology. Research institutions can buy more eye-tracking equipment, i.e., more individual eye-tracking stations ( 12 ). So much so, the number of eye-trackers can easily surpass the number of rooms available to house them, or the number of personnel available (and able) to use them in a “traditional” study setup.…”

“…To this day, laboratories with the group eye-tracking setups have existed for some years in several (but not many) institutions worldwide ( 14, 2, 8, 6, 19 ). Software solutions with features allowing the control of multiple eye-trackers also started to emerge ( 12 ). However, as a discipline, the group eye-tracking is not yet well described, discussed and methodologically established.…”