Eye Tracking (Tobii Eyex), Elite: Dangerous

[TorTorden]

I'm slowly getting better and better use out of it but I still have to have my 34" screen, practically in my lap.
And yes I tried earlier to mount the tracker in front of the screen and the screen back in my old spot.

But no love.

I am exactly 70cm away from the sensor as I type this, and if I lean back in my full back chair it starts getting wierd.

I have yet to really resolve the curve screen mounting, but one thing I learned today, was that you are only supposed to use one of the two magnetic strips (face palm), that helped a litte, the strips bend easily enough so they fit on a curve, the eyex not so much but if I refrain from bumbing the cable or the device itself it stays put ok.
Not great, but ok.

My final verdict stands.
That this is certainly not a ready product, I would much rather advice on getting an ED tracker (and that can be used anywhere regardless of screen size, shape and distance to it)

It's quite neat when it works, but then calibration breaks (inow, you move your chair slightly) and you start from scratch again..

I also do have to say it feels a bit weird making these seemingly grand head movements in game when i'm only glancing to the side
Honestly if had an oculus I'm not sure I would consider using this at all.

[HazCat]

TorTorden - did you try different profiles for different scenarios? E.g., with glasses/lights out, without glasses/lights on, etc.? I'm thinking that the ability to generate multiple profiles is there for a reason.

Is the device too heavy to mount with double-stick foam tape? From what I can see without have the physical device on hand yet, that should be just about the right amount of shim to get it past the curve.

And... what happens when you look past the "live" area, e.g., to the edges of the screen or to a second monitor?

Thanks!

[TorTorden]

I notice no difference between lights on or not (it shouldn't matter since its ir based)
The multiple profiles as I see it is if you have multiple users. Or one for glasses and one for contacts, I have those but I just don't like having contacts in period.

I'm the only one to use my computer and I always have my glasses on so don't see how a different profile would help when the main problem is I can't sit at a comfortable distance and use this devices

Glasses or not I still have to awkwardly hunch towards the monitor in order for it to even resemble stable.
At best it works on par with voice recognition. It mostly does what you want and then suddenly your commander is obsessed by his shoes..

Apart from the actual eye tracking over distance problem it expects a flat straight frame so my beveled and curved display is just not helpful.
I really wanted this to work but I doubt I will ever hook this up once I get a rift.
Only reason I'm not using the gear vr is it overheats or drain the battery

[TorTorden]

As for the device it really light.
In fact the cable it connects with is the heavier part .

[HazCat]

Thanks for the info!

I'm still looking forward to trying it out, but I suspect me expectations are a bit reduced.

[GlobusDiablo]

As for the device it really light.
In fact the cable it connects with is the heavier part .

Thanks again TT. I'll save my pennies and rob a bank when HTC Vive hits...

[TorTorden]

I do have to admit that once it does work it does work :p

I also need to adjust myself as well. Before I would match the world or target with my ship.

No it's more of the opposite.

Also setting up voice attack to toggle the eye tracker and reset has also helped a lot since you can't bind those to my hotas.

[HazCat]

Just a quick update - EyeX arrived this afternoon and it's running now on my system. Mounting on my 34" curved monitor was fairly simple - especially after I read the warning sheet that states the double sided tape is designed to permanently attach the bracket. And then warns of monitor/laptop damage if removal is attempted... uhm, no. Not. So I attached the bracket to some max strength foam double stick tape and THAT to my monitor. I know I can get if off, now. And it took care of shimming the mount just enough.

Software installation was simple - go to the designated web site, pull down the software. Run, install, calibrate, go. Then off to the site again to pull down their "Infinite Screen" app and ensure it saw ED installed on the system and to set up a "on/off" toggle and "center screen" switch. All the software - and the device firmware - identified upgrades pending and got themselves sorted out quickly.

Calibration was straight forward - but it's interesting to note that the software is VERY particular about distance. I initially calibrated at the normal keyboard distance and it worked great. But when I dropped my controls in, which moves me about six inches back... I had to recalibrate. Once done, though, it didn't lose calibration once. I wear glasses but that didn't seem to have made a difference. The lighting in my computer space is low and indirect, which may have helped.

I've only had time for a few short training missions, and it's definitely interesting to have the center of the screen flow with your eyes. I tend to keep my eyes moving and scan instruments, which can be disconcerting. One nice thing, though, is that the detector seems perfectly happy with me moving my whole head, not just my eyes, so looking around is fairly natural.

One truly promising thing I noted, though, is that in combat being able to look and follow the opponent naturally almost made the screen disappear. Except for a slight lag when I dropped my eyes back toward the scanner, or once when I got disoriented it really helped with immersion.

I kept a system monitor running in another monitor and frankly couldn't discern any difference running the EyeX and not. So it's probably fairly light on system resource demands.

More to follow, but frankly (and admittedly based on limited play) it's looking pretty positive at first blush.

[TorTorden]

Calibration was straight forward - but it's interesting to note that the software is VERY particular about distance. I initially calibrated at the normal keyboard distance and it worked great. But when I dropped my controls in, which moves me about six inches back... I had to recalibrate. Once done, though, it didn't lose calibration once. I wear glasses but that didn't seem to have made a difference. The lighting in my computer space is low and indirect, which may have helped.

Well at least it's not just me.
I too am one of those "constant scanners", and with this I need to be a lot more concentrated on where I keep looking, that and I need to just let the tracking happen, its taking a bit getting used to I will say that :p

After some tweaking the distance requirements are my only real problem.
I still have to get the screen so close up on me that I have the rest the keyboard directly on top of the stand mount, and if I reach out my arm the screens edge goes three inches past my wrist.

That's pretty darn close to sit for a 34" screen...

I do have to admit I am gett slitghly more used to it, but I get quickly fatigued, I can barely hold on for more than say thirty minutes before needing a break :\

As for temps. Yeah I probably don't see anything noticeable either.
I did however swap mother boards recently and I suspect the stock intel cooler don't quite like being reseated so I have noticed temps jumping with almost 15c during load (or my old mobo was reporting broken numbers, not impossible).

I am also playing around with the idea of taking off the armrests on my chair since they are now bumping into shelves for my hotas, problem is, the armrest is what attaches the back to the actual chair, would need to fashion some wood supports to replace that section.

So, so far I will say it does work as advertised, but is rather sensitive in some regards and I still wouldn't recommend it for a wide audience, if you do have som money lying around and you have the choice between splurging on this, or buying booze than maybe I would recommend trying it.

I'l try getting some footage of res hunting in my corvette and post it on youtube.

PS: are you also getting a infinite screen crash message every time you start elite ?
Stating:
"Error: Name cannot begin with the '<'
hexadecimal value 0x3c. Line 595, position 3."

I just click it away and on off the screen..
Still every time I start elite I get that one.

[HazCat]

R.e. the distance issue - I generated two profiles, one at my normal "work" screen distance (about 25"/64 cm) and another at my "play Elite" screen distance (31"/79 cm) and switching to the right profile seems to take care of any issues. You wouldn't think that such a small distance would make a difference, but this thing is sensitive.

I'm finding that the more I get used to it, the better it "feels." It will be interesting to see just how natural it gets (if at all) after multiple days of use. But I do tend to agree with TorTorden's assessment - if you have some extra cash, aren't thrilled with using a hat switch for POV, and like gadgets, the EyeX is probably worth a try. But if it's a question of one thing or another - don't rush out just yet. Or, at least, wait until us cutting-edge early adapters have mucked about for a week or two...

TorTorden: I'm not seeing ANY error messages; everything works just fine (so far). We installed at roughly the same time, too, so we should be running the same software version. If I think of anything, I'll let you know.