Numerous technologies and processes require tracking rapidly moving objects. An example of such application is saccadometry, tracking and measuring rapid eye movements. Saccadometry is important, in particular, as a tool for monitoring health conditions that influence the saccadic motion of the eyes. Saccadometry requires temporal sampling of eye position at rates of 300 Hz or greater in order to detect these rapid changes in gaze.
Traditionally, saccadometry relies on fast-framing imagers of some type to solve this temporal sampling rate problem. Existing eye tracker systems acquire high format, high speed video (500-1500 fps), some utilizing IR light reflection from the pupil. They tend to be expensive (on the order of $45,000 USD and higher at today's prices), cumbersome (due to head-mounts/restraints and accompanying hardware), and have large data storage requirements making it unlikely to be deployed in the field. Saccadometers are typically less expensive ($20,000-35,000 USD), but can record only horizontal eye movements, and require both IR and laser sources. In addition, existing saccadometers provide only an average cyclopean position of the two eyes in the horizontal plane. These are specialized systems used for medical research and diagnostics. Sophisticated tracking software is required to extract saccade information from full frame imagery.
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