Jumpy Mouse Control

Plug in 2 USB Cables

For some models of eye trackers, it can have two USB cables plugged in. The lower USB cable is mandatory and provides the minimum amount of power, and sends the eye tracking data. The upper USB cable can provide additional power for the infrared (IR) lights.

For many users, they don't need both cables plugged in to get good eye tracking. Plugging in a second mini USB cable brightens the lights and provides a crisper image for better tracking. If you have been running it with two cables and now switched to one cable, this is probably the issue.

Running with two cables, also can increase the depth of the usable headbox, or in other words, you can move your head further forward and back while using the eye tracker.

Focus of the Camera

If the user is out of focus at the distance the camera is being used at, this can also cause this issue.

In Quick Glance the focus value is reported beneath the live view. As you move forward and back, the focus value will reach a maximum at the best focus location. So you move forward and it goes from 13 to 14 to 15, etc, and ends at 17 (this end value may be higher or lower for different users), and then as you continue to move forward it starts to drop again to 16, 14, etc. Using the eye tracker at the distance where it was at the max value (17 in this example) would provide slightly better eye tracking. Also calibrating at that distance and using it at that distance will show improvement in tracking.

In QuickACCESS, the focus value can be found by opening Calibration Extras > Enable Stats and then click the corresponding icon in the Live View window (looks like 3 signal bars). This makes a floating stats window that can be viewed any where on the screen where you move the mouse.

• FPS - Frames per Second, or the speed of the camera frames
• SW% - Software percent, or the percentage of frames that are processed from the camera.
• LE% - Left Eye percent
• RE% - Right Eye percent
• Focus - The focus value, that reaches a maximum when the image in the best focus.
• Distance - An estimation of the current distance the user is away from the eye tracker.

Using the focus value, you can check for a maximum value, like it is described above for Quick Glance.

Stability or Smoothness Value

In Quick Glance you can adjust the smoothness by going to

Quick Glance > Settings > Advanced Settings > Processing (tab) > Stability

Lower numbers are more raw and responsive. Higher numbers are more stable and less jittery.

In QuickACCESS you can adjust the Stability by going to Settings (Gears) > Eye (tab) > Stability Value.

• Smart - moves the mouse slower/steadier when small eye movements are performed, and does faster movements when large eye movements are performed.
• Classic - moves the mouse according to a fixed averaging value.

Grid 2 Users + Quick Glance

The Grid 2 manages settings of Quick Glance when it accesses QuickLinkAPI, and often will disable the Smoothing/Stability setting (by setting it to 1). The Grid 2 has its own management of Eye Tracker/ Eye Gaze settings. These settings can be accessed by going to

The Grid 2 > Edit > User Settings > Input Settings > Eye Gaze

One of the options under there is for Calibration > Show Camera View. This option shows the Quick Glance window, and gives access to settings. Many other settings for Quick Glance can be found under the Eye Gaze settings in the Grid 2.