iComponent: software with flexible architecture for developing plug-in modules for eye trackers

Abstract

iComponent is a software tool we have developed to facilitate basic research on eye movements as well as applications of eye gaze for computer input. Despite the variety of eye trackers and gaze-data analysis tools available today, there is still a gap between what researchers need and what products are available on the market to suit their needs. Also, researchers are confronted with many difficulties due to complexity of the technology of eye tracking devices. We approached the need to standardize the input process by proposing a generic data format and making the software architecture flexible. This is achieved by inserting an intermediate software layer (API converter) between the core of iComponent and the API of the device attached.