Tobii Eye Tracker 4C - The Game-changing Eye Tracking Peripheral for Streaming, PC Gaming & Esports - Windows Tobii Eye Tracker 4C

What is it?An interesting peripheral for Windows 10 pc users that tracks where you are looking on screen, this device can really add something to compatible games. You stick the bar to the bottom of your monitor and it emits infra red light / records your face (and particularly your eyes). This new version has a built in processor for calculating where you are looking on screen with a reasonable degree of accuracy, meaning there's only a marginal additional load on your CPU. It also supports tracking of head movement although this feature currently has limited functionality.Is it hard to use?It was easy to set up and calibrate although do read the instructions on their website carefully - I found where you sit and particularly your eye line in relation to the screen is critical for good tracking, so you may need to raise your monitor up a few cm to get the best results. Once set up, you don't have to sit still like a statue but if you make a major change (adjust the height of your seat or sit further back) you should do a quick recalibration (accessed via the applet and takes about 30 seconds of staring at dots to make them burst - which is fun in and of itself).What does it do in games?This is not a mouse replacement but more of an additional controller / experience enhancer. The games need to support the tracker (either directly in game or via some sort of emulation extension provided by Tobii's software - over 80 are currently listed including some triple A titles. How the games use the tracking varies... in may first person titles, it acts as a pseudo VR like effect where the screen moves around as your eyes scan the screen which can be immersive or can be distracting. In others, it allows you to target or select enemies, scroll the map by looking at the edges of the screen, make the HUD or UI disappear unless you look at it and generally act as a mouse enhancement. To get the best out of this, make sure you have at least one game with native Tobii eye tracker support - my first tests where with Euro Truck Simulator II which really only has emulated support and the results where underwhelming... I then tried F1 2017, a flag ship game and the effect was like night and day - the way the view changed with my eyes and head movements was really immersive and the screen uncluttered unless I looked in the corners. I can also recommend titles like Ubisoft's Steep and the Division as they really embrace the tech and make good use of the effect it can bring to the experience and game play.What else does it do?The tracker can also be used in Windows 10 to select windows when in task view mode, unlock your pc when it detects your face etc via Tobii's software, with native windows 10 support coming this month in the next big windows 10 update.Any problems?it requires a decent USB 2 port with sufficient power to run the device and the lead is quite short and built in / non replaceable (although it did come with an extension cable). It also comes with a spare stick on magnet to attach to your monitor for placing the bar.. which seemed generous except I damaged the first one within seconds (its easy to accidentally apply it in the wrong place and removing it bends the magnetic strip out of place) - be very careful when setting it up for this reason.

This is brilliant. It works and is a pleasure to interact with in games and on the desktop. If you’ve not tried it, you really need to.I would have loved to have given it 5 stars but the issues I had with the software has prevented this. On the surface the software appears simple, however it frequently freezes (see picture) until you reset your computer. At one point it was impossible to recalibrate, resulting in me having to reinstall it and removing some files from the registry (which if you are unfamiliar with this can be daunting, or at least it should be if you know the risks).Other niggles are with the USB cable which comes out of the wrong side of the tracker. It would have been nicer if there was a way to feed the cable through the device. As a result I have no real way of neatly managing this cable without the tracker falling off its magnet (see other picture). Talking about magnets, you only get 2 strips in the box for a maximum of 2 devices. There doesn’t seem to be an option to buy more. I liked the idea of the screen dimming feature, unfortunately my monitor is not compatible with this.Provided I don’t continue to have software issues I will keep this, however if problems persist I will probably return it. Despite the critisms I have, this is brilliant when it works, and when it works you can easily forgive the problems I’ve encountered.

I decided to go for this instead of a TrackIR specifically for DCS 2,5 after finding it accidentally on YouTube. One particular user raved about it in the game Elite: Dangerous (which I also have). I thought I would give it a try and it is quite interesting. Primarily it tracks your eyes, not your head (although there is some head tracking available). The setup is very very easy and fast. It's like witchcraft as it detects exactly where on the screen you are looking. As an access device for disabled computer users I think it would be fantastic. And to be fair to Tobii, I think that is it's true purpose in life, not helping gamers. All credit to them for this intention because it really does work in that capacity. I only wanted it for gaming though, as a much tidier alternative to TrackIR. It did not work at all in DCS 2.5. Nothing happened. I think it works in V1.5 but these versions are huge and I don't want to go through the pain of reverting to an out-of-date version. It did work in Elite, and quite well too. Up to a point. I started to encounter freezing on both games, where the keyboard got locked out (but not the flight controller) and the escape key started activating the start button in Elite (not in DCS). I did not experience any issues when NOT running a game. So it did not work in the one game I really need it to. I put a post on the Tobii forums and they engaged with me very quickly but their solution was to reinstall DCS 2.5. That's more than 60GB of data I only downloaded a week ago. No thank you! I requested a return for the Tobii and I will try TrackIR after all.

It takes a bit of setting up and for me the adhesive backings were a bit on the weak side so I replaced the adhesive parts with 3M command strips. Once it's set up then it functions brilliantly with a good smooth low/no lag response.UPDATE: It's now just over 6 months since I bought this device and it's still going great guns. I use it exclusively with my laptop so it generally gets packed and unpacked and set up daily because I do a lot of travelling with my laptop. I did encounter issues with powering it from my laptop USB ports but when I power it externally from an Anker USB3 hub (I know only USB2 is needed) then I have no issues with it whatsoever.In terms of gaming, the feel of it is very natural and in flight sim games your situational awareness is greatly improved because you can look up, down, left and right without having to worry about controlling where you're flying or using the keyboard or mouse look features most games have especially if you're using a HOTAS for flight control.