What Is The Eye Tracking Challenge And How To Do It With Your Webcam Or IPhone Skip to content

What Is the Eye Tracker Challenge and How to Do It With Your Webcam or iPhone?

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What is the eye tracking challenge?

The eye tracking challenge is a viral social media activity with the YouTube challenger recording themself trying not to look at a predetermined subject, while the Tobii or the Beam Eye Tracker software’s eye gaze bubble overlay shows where the Youtuber is looking on the screen. The predetermined subject can be anything, from TikTok video clips of beautiful women to cats and dogs. PewDiePie and other YouTubers and TikTok creators lose the video challenge if their eye gaze bubble locks onto the thing they are prohibited from looking at.  
One of the most popular Youtubers who attempted this “impossible” eye tracker challenge is PewDiePie who concluded in his funny eye tracker challenge video that it’s almost impossible to control your eye gaze away from what you are not supposed to look at. He says it’s even more challenging when images appear in his peripheral vision. This happened to him multiple times when he noticed himself peeking at pictures in the YouTube video recommendations section. His failure to avoid looking at the images exposes the difficulty of trying to control his attention and how social media tricks us into clicking on the next thing that catches our eye.
Plenty of famous YouTubers attempted the eye tracking challenge too. IHasCupquake’ made a wholesome eye tracker challenge video. Morgz did a shopping-themed video challenge. FaZe Jarvis’s eye tracking challenge was centered around him trying not to look at attractive female streamers shown in TikTok videos. There are even reaction videos with over 11 million views, such as Pokimane reacting to JJ Olatunji’s eye tracking challenge.  

How does the eye tracker challenge work?

Before we answer that question, we need to answer these questions: what is eye tracking? What is an eye tracker? What does an eye tracker do? Let’s get just a little technical for a moment: eye tracking is a technological process that enables the measurement of eye movements, eye positions, and points of gaze. In other words, the eye tracking software identifies and monitors a person’s visual attention in terms of location, objects, and duration. The trackers should ideally capture specific eye movements, like rapid eye movements known as saccades. Eye trackers are the devices that track your point of regard on a screen. If you want to have a better understanding of these two topics, we recommend checking out Understanding Eye Tracking & How it Can Work for You. The eye tracking technology is based on pupil center corneal reflection (or PCCR). This means that an infrared light source illuminates your eyes. An image sensor can then detect the reflection.  Add some calibration and algorithm magic, and what you get back is the gaze bubble on your screen. It’s a reliable technology that is not harmful with over two decades of use in everything from assistive technology devices (AAC) to tracking shopping behavior. However, even though the cost of such devices like Tobii Dynavox has dropped significantly in recent years, they still require quite a hefty investment.  

What eye tracker technology do live streamers use to film their eye tracking challenge videos?

  The technology used to get the gaze bubble overlay in the videos mentioned above is the Tobii eye tracker, a piece of hardware you need to purchase for around $270 (close to ‎€230‎). A frequently asked whether is whether you can you get an eye tracker using your webcam or mobile phone camera? The Beam Eye Tracker does exactly that. It’s a software for Windows PC that turns your webcam or phone into a gaming eye tracker. It’s a great option to use for creating an eye tracking challenge video, as it is a robust and affordable alternative to expensive infrared hardware. If you have don’t have a webcam, you can turn your smartphone into an external webcam instead and use that as an input device for the Beam Eye Tracker.  Android 14 allows you to directly turn your smartphone into a webcam plugging in with USB-C, thanks to its built-in Android webcam feature. iOS users with FaceID-enabled devices should download the Beam Eye Tracker iOS app to benefit from offloading and 3D sensor tracking. If you don’t have FaceID then consider the Apple built-in Continuity Camera. For older devices, explore free webcam apps like Camo Studio that work on all platforms. Once your phone is set up as a webcam, choose the virtual webcam it creates in Windows as your input device in the Beam Eye Tracker settings, similar to selecting a standard webcam. Note that the iOS app has some unique advantages. Use the Beam Eye Tracker iOS app extension on your FaceID-enabled iPhone or iPad to transfer processing tasks from your computer, reducing the CPU load to nearly zero. Take advantage of the TrueDepth 3D selfie camera and our patented 3D algorithms to improve calibration robustness and accuracy. The Beam Eye Tracker is the first-ever AI-powered eye tracking software that turns your webcam or smartphone into an eye tracker and head tracker at an affordable price.   Beam Eye Tracker supports 200+ games using the OpenTrack extension   The eye tracker overlay is ideal for a challenge video because the gaze bubble overlay shows where you focus your attention with your eyes on the computer screen. The eye tracker software uses proprietary computer vision algorithms and machine perception AI technology that generates a robust eye tracking signal comparable to the Tobii eye tracking hardware. The patent-pending 3D eye tracking software and head tracking technology do not depend on the ARKit. That means app developers can later release the  Beam Eye Tracker app on Android and other platforms. Beam Eye Tracker is the easiest and most affordable eye tracking software that enables your gaze bubble to be visible on a screen to make your challenge video easily.  

Personalize your experience. Get creative!

  Now that we covered the tech side of how it works, we’ll share that in order to get started, you need to set up your Beam Eye Tracker or Tobii eye tracker device and simply pick a video to watch as the subject you will avoid looking at. There are plenty of choices within reach of a YouTube search. If you want to spice things up, here’s an idea: many participants personalize their eye tracking challenge experience by trying it out with their friends, partner, or family. It’s time to coordinate the next family reunion in 2022. And speaking of spicing things up, some of the challenges include penalties like eating ghost pepper wings whenever you fail, as scuffedpuppie did in this TikTok! If you feel like you want to challenge the gods of the eye tracking challenge, simply google eye tracking challenge you can’t win or eye tracking challenge (TikTok edition) impossible and see if you can successfully pass. There’s a bunch of videos to inspire you.   eye tracking challenge eye tracker challenge scuffedpuppie TikTok  

You can broadcast your eye tracker stream or record and upload the video

  While you can choose to record and upload your video challenge, you may also share your screen in live streams with the eye gaze bubble overlay for a more immersive viewing experience that is sure to encourage more YouTube comments. You need to integrate the Beam Eye Tracker with streaming software. You may then add the eye gaze bubble as a YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitch overlay in the best free live streaming apps for creators. Livestream content for free with Streamlabs OBS or OBS Studio from Open Broadcaster Software as shown in the video tutorial below.
You can purchase streaming equipment for beginners. Though a beginner streaming setup consisting of your Windows computer and its built-in webcam and microphone works fine to broadcast your fun livestream ideas like the eye tracker challenge.  

What will you do in your eyetracker challenge video?

By now, you understand the basics of the eye tracking challenge, eye tracking software, and how eye tracking works. We talked quite a bit about this challenge and the tech that enables you to control the eye gaze bubble on your screen. So get up and get moving. You’ll find it easy learning how to stream on Twitch, and other popular live stream platforms with eye tracking software if you are up to the task of doing a live challenge video. There is no better time to take the challenge than…right now? And If you fail, well, at least you go down laughing. Are you considering doing the eye tracking challenge using the Beam Eye Tracker? Or will you make epic reaction videos, game reviews, walkthroughs, ASMR, how-tos, or tutorials? Use #eyewarebeam #beameyetracker in your video description and we’ll share some of the best challenges that we come across!   
Start your eye tracking challenge today! How do you get an eye tracker? Get the Beam Eye Tracker here!
 
 

Turn Your Webcam into an Eye Tracker in Minutes

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