Using high-speed photography and image processing for fixational eye movements measurement

Abstract

As we known the vision system plays a very important role for people. Eye movements are an important part of human's vision system. Scientists have studied fixational eye movements for many years, and the importance of fixational eye movements has been experimentally demonstrated. However, fixational eye movements have not been explained clearly because of the technical problems associated with experimentation. To measure these eye movements, we developed a new eye movement measurement device that offers sufficient accuracy. The device can detect rotation in three degrees of freedom and is also less-invasive. We discovered several new characteristics of fixational eye movement by using the device. The first new finding of our study is the occurrence of fixational eye movements associated with rotation around the optical axis. The second finding is that we observed is an impulse-like movement behaviour that occurs generally in the horizontal direction. Our other new findings include the following: most microsaccade tracks are curve lines, and microsaccades of rotation in three degrees of freedom always occur at the same time.