GazeCode: Open-source software for manual mapping of mobile eye-tracking data

Abstract

Purpose: Eye movements recorded with mobile eye trackers generally have to be mapped to the visual stimulus manually. Manufacturer software usually has sub-optimal user interfaces. Here, we compare our in-house developed open-source alternative to the manufacturer software, called GazeCode. Method: 330 seconds of eye movements were recorded with the Tobii Pro Glasses 2. Eight coders subsequently categorized fixations using both Tobii Pro Lab and GazeCode. Results: Average manual mapping speed was more than two times faster when using GazeCode (0.649 events/s) compared with Tobii Pro Lab (0.292 events/s). Inter-rater reliability (Cohen’s Kappa) was similar and satisfactory; 0.886 for Tobii Pro Lab and 0.871 for GazeCode. Conclusion: GazeCode is a faster alternative to Tobii Pro Lab for mapping eye movements to the visual stimulus. Moreover, it accepts eye-tracking data from manufacturers SMI, Positive Science, Tobii, and Pupil Labs.