The pupil is faster than the corneal reflection (CR): are video based pupil-CR eye trackers suitable for studying detailed dynamics of eye movements?

Abstract

Most modern video eye trackers use the p-CR (pupil minus CR) technique to deal with small relative movements between the eye tracker camera and the eye. We question whether the p-CR technique is appropriate to investigate saccade dynamics. In two experiments we investigated the dynamics of pupil, CR and gaze signals obtained from a standard SMI Hi-Speed eye tracker. We found many differences between the pupil and the CR signals. Differences concern timing of the saccade onset, saccade peak velocity and post-saccadic oscillation (PSO). We also obtained that pupil peak velocities were higher than CR peak velocities. Saccades in the eye trackers' gaze signal (that is constructed from p-CR) appear to be excessive versions of saccades in the pupil signal. We conclude that the pupil-CR technique is not suitable for studying detailed dynamics of eye movements.