cs.CVAug 30, 2026

Drift Calibration in Geometric Eye Tracking Systems

Authors: Jiaqi LiuZixuan WangYuhong ZhangDingkang LiangJane Hanqi LiTzyy-Ping JungGert Cauwenberghs

Organizations: Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego

Abstract

Geometric eye trackers can provide the spatial accuracy required for gaze-based interaction and multimodal studies, but their measurements remain sensitive to residual session-specific calibration error. Research on correcting this error is difficult to compare because methods are typically evaluated with different devices, target layouts, and error definitions. We present a calibration-focused dataset containing 163 trials from 12 participants, with separate 18-point fitting and 32-point test grids, and use it to evaluate global, local, and composite correction functions under a common spatial-extrapolation protocol. We further introduce a lightweight neural refiner that combines ranked predictions from complementary calibrators. On this controlled dataset, post-vendor correction reduces the mean angular error from 1.531.53^\circ to 1.031.03^\circ with the strongest classical composite and to 0.960.96^\circ with the refiner. In a closed-loop gaze task, lower residual error is associated with higher performance across four online correction conditions. These results provide a reproducible data-quality benchmark for using gaze as a behavioral signal in interactive modeling.

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