Tobii Tech 4C eye tracker for gaming review

1. Introduction2. Unboxing3. Tobii 4C eye tracker4. Testing5. Final Thoughts6. View All Pages

Tobii's Eye Tracker has gone a long way to selling me on the idea of eye tracking in general. The way I intuitively picked up how to select targets in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the way it let me look around while walking in a straight line in The Hunter and the way it can pause games when you aren't paying attention, are all excellent. Right now though, I am not sure if I could justify actually buying it.

The supported game list for a niche peripheral like the Tobii 4C Eye Tracker is quite impressive. At the time of writing there are 40+ and more being added every week. Eye tracking is going to take off at some point in the near future, with Tobii helping lead the charge with its free standing trackers like the 4C and its implementation in a number of virtual reality headsets.

Foveated rendering is going to make all our GPUs' horse power go much further and there are some great uses for the input method. But at the current price? £140 for some niche functionality and clever uses? It is hard to justify.

Tobii makes a great eye tracker and at that price, it is certainly much more affordable than this sort of technology has ever been before. I really like how it is been used and some of the functions in games are completely unique to this sort of input method. It will be a real boon to gamers with limited mobility and for those with full use of everything, it is still pretty cool to be able to use your eyes to look around. It is easy to pick up and quickly feels right.

I suspect when I stop using the 4C I will miss some of its features. I will not miss it juggling around cut scenes though and I will not miss occasionally just wanting to look directly at something without the view shifting.

These are all niggling problems that will be worked out in the future though and games designed with eye tracking from the get go will be a far better showcase of this sort of technology. For now though the implementation is good, but not great and at that price it is hard to say it is anything but ‘worth considering.'

You can pre-order the Tobii 4C tracker direct from the manufacturer for 160 euros (£138).

Pros

• Excellent eye tracking. Fast, fluid and intuitive.
• Set up is simple and fast and holds your hand through first uses.
• Compact and neat bundle. Looks good and does not take up too much space.
• List of supported games is growing every week.

Cons

• Some slight issues with CPU priority in certain games shutting down tracker.
• Cable is short.
• Game library is still limited (but growing).
• Added functionality is quite limited. Victim of chicken/egg scenario.
• Expensive for what it offers right now.
• Sticky back is so strong, removing the magnet strips is difficult.

KitGuru Says: Eye tracking is something we are going to be seeing a lot more of in the future and Tobii is one of the earliest pioneers. This eye tracker is a fully fleshed out product, but its implementation feels a little Early Access. If you like playing with new technology you will have a blast with the 4C, but for those with full mobility and limited budgets, I would hold fire until there is a must buy game that uses it. 

 

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