Pupillary Light Reflex Correction for Robust Pupillometry in Virtual Reality

Eckert M, Robotham T, Habets E, Rummukainen OS (2022)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Book Volume: 5

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.1145/3530798

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) headsets with an integrated eye tracker enable the measurement of pupil size fluctuations correlated with cognition during a VR experience. We present a method to correct for the light-induced pupil size changes, otherwise masking the more subtle cognitively-driven effects, such as cognitive load and emotional state. We explore multiple calibration sequences to find individual mapping functions relating the luminance to pupil dilation that can be employed in real-time during a VR experience. The resulting mapping functions are evaluated in a VR-based n-back task and in free exploration of a six-degrees-of-freedom VR scene. Our results show estimating luminance from a weighted average of the fixation area and the background yields the best performance. Calibration sequence composed of either solid gray or realistic scene brightness levels shown for 6 s in a pseudo-random order proved most robust.

Authors with CRIS profile

Mirjam Eckert
Thomas Robotham International Audio Laboratories Erlangen (AudioLabs) Emanuël Habets Lehrstuhl für wahrnehmungsbasierte räumliche Audiosignalverarbeitung (Stiftungslehrstuhl)

Involved external institutions

Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen (IIS)

Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Eckert, M., Robotham, T., Habets, E., & Rummukainen, O.S. (2022). Pupillary Light Reflex Correction for Robust Pupillometry in Virtual Reality. Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1145/3530798

MLA:

Eckert, Mirjam, et al. "Pupillary Light Reflex Correction for Robust Pupillometry in Virtual Reality." Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques 5.2 (2022).

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