Tracking Eye Movement Using a Composite Magnet

Tracking blinking and eye movements has many applications in automotive, gaming, sleep laboratories, controlling machines, and tracking our health. The current technologies are uncomfortable to use, invasive, and require the attention of the user, specialized training, or the eyes to be open all the time. With the advancements in wearable electronics, realizing a comfortable eye tracker for everyday use is now more feasible than ever. This work presents a magnetic eye tracker achieved by attaching a composite magnet to the eyelid. A multi-axis magnetic field sensor, which is placed in a comfortable nearby location (i.e., integrated into a sleeping mask), detects the motion of the composite magnet due to the movement of the eyeball. Thus, the system is capable of measuring when the eyeball moves down, up, left, or right. It is wearable, battery-powered, and completely wireless, allowing for comfortable everyday use. To facilitate the continuous tracking of eye movement, a software component is developed in which a MATLAB code analyzes the systematic changes on the measured magnetic field at the tracker. Accordingly, the system marks when the eye moves down/up or left/right.