What is Tobii Webcam Eye Tracking?

Tobii Webcam Eye Tracking is a software-based solution that turns standard webcams into precise eye tracking instruments. Built on Tobii's proprietary Tobii Nexus AI platform, it enables researchers to conduct rigorous eye tracking studies without specialized hardware — whether in a controlled lab environment or across thousands of distributed online participants.

Unlike standalone webcam tracking tools, Tobii's approach is fully integrated within the Tobii Pro Lab ecosystem. Researchers design studies, collect gaze data, and analyze results using the same familiar workflow — with the flexibility to reach broader, more diverse participant groups than ever before.

Key Features

• No specialized hardware required: Use any standard webcam to collect gaze data, reducing infrastructure costs and setup complexity significantly.
• Flexible study design: Choose between controlled on-site studies or fully distributed remote research — both running within a unified Tobii Pro Lab workflow.
• Distributed online research at scale: Recruit participants across geographies and demographics, capturing real-world screen behavior without logistical overhead.
• Integrated with Tobii Pro Lab: Design studies, collect data, and analyze gaze behavior — including heatmaps, AOI metrics, and gaze plots — using the same platform trusted by researchers worldwide.
• Research-validated accuracy: Validated by Uppsala University researchers, Tobii Nexus-powered webcam tracking is suitable for many adult paradigms using AOI-based attention measures, including preferential-looking tasks.
• Expand participant reach: Access broader, more diverse populations — including remote, international, and clinical groups — without requiring participants to visit a lab.

Two Ways to Run Your Research

• Distributed Online Research: Launch studies online and collect gaze data from participants using their own computers. Reduce fielding effort and reach participants across locations and demographics — all within the Tobii Pro Lab workflow.
• Local On-Site Research (Coming Soon): Run controlled studies on a single computer with a standard webcam. Maintain study consistency and direct oversight — ideal for smaller studies requiring precise control over conditions.

How Researchers Use Webcam Eye Tracking

Webcam eye tracking supports a wide range of research scenarios, making visual attention data accessible across disciplines that previously relied on expensive dedicated hardware or limited in-lab settings.

• UX Research: Evaluate websites, apps, dashboards, AI interfaces, and prototypes remotely — combining gaze data with click tracking and survey responses for deep user insights.
• Education Research: Study attention to digital learning materials, e-learning modules, and instructional videos across distributed participant cohorts.
• Social & Emotional Research: Investigate attention to faces, social scenes, and affectively salient stimuli, supported by AOI-level gaze metrics and response data.
• Cognitive & Behavioral Research: Study attention, perception, information search, and decision-making using screen-based stimuli in naturalistic environments.
• Medical & Clinical Assessment Research: Support supervised studies of social attention, gaze behavior, and neurodevelopmental patterns using validated, screen-based paradigms.
• Human Factors Research: Evaluate screen-based dashboards, operational displays, training videos, and hazard-detection materials with distributed research cohorts.

Work Within Tobii Pro Lab

Webcam eye tracking is fully integrated into Tobii Pro Lab, giving you a complete environment for designing studies, collecting data, and analyzing results. Collect and manage data within a structured workflow, analyze gaze behavior using advanced visualization and metrics, and keep your research consistent across methods and setups.