SMI launches high-speed remote eye tracker

Just in time for the SfN Neuroscience 2010 Conference in San Diego, USA, SMI launches the RED500. The RED500 is the world's first high-performance and high-speed remote eye tracker, with 500Hz sampling rate, binocular tracking and a large tracking range. It combines the ease of use and high data quality of SMI's well established RED remote eye tracker line and the easy-to-integrate and advanced API of SMI's software platform, with a new sampling rate of 500Hz.

“With 500Hz sampling rate, we've leveraged our vast experience with the RED platform to reach a new level and can now provide unmatched quality for scientific research in the fields of neurology and psychology, especially for integrated studies with EEG.”

Scientific research in neuroscience and psychology, reading and cognitive processes is an important area for the application of eye tracking systems. In these applications, accuracy of the measured signal is of critical importance. With saccades being as fast as 1000° per second, accuracy, especially for saccadic measures, is significantly influenced by sampling rate. 500Hz sampling rate is generally considered fully "scientific grade", not requiring compromises on the dynamic aspects of eye movements.

The all-in-one system setup, invented by SMI for the RED remote tracker line, provides a unique versatility, allowing the use of a PC-monitor, large screen/TV, CRT, and projection screens, all with one system. The RED500 has inherited this system design and combines it with new hardware and algorithms to achieve its unprecedented level of performance.

The RED500 also provides the well-tested interfacing of SMI's scientific eye trackers: The application programming interface (API), which has been available free-of-charge for more than a decade, can easily be used to integrate SMI eye trackers into custom applications and experiments with little integration effort. Perhaps the most appealing quality for Neuroscientists and Psychologists is the easy integration with all major EEG systems, Matlab and other scientific software and hardware.

"After more than one year of intensive development, we are able to provide our scientific customers a completely new level of performance with the RED500" says Christian Villwock, Director of the Eye&Gaze Tracking System business unit. "With 500Hz sampling rate, we've leveraged our vast experience with the RED platform to reach a new level and can now provide unmatched quality for scientific research in the fields of neurology and psychology, especially for integrated studies with EEG."