Beam: Huvud- och Ögonspårare 4+

Quality and affordable head tracking.

Bringing quality and affordable head tracking to everyday devices.

My head tracking experience:
I have used head and eye tracking products for a number of years now.
I have now a new head and eye tracker to add to that list. I have used
a range of head tracking products such as TrackIR, the Tobii 3, Tobii 4c
and a range of other cheaper alternatives. It was back in 2012-2013 when
I got my first head tracking device. I have used these devices in various
racing, driving and flight simulators.

My Eyeware Beam experience:
At first I was a little skeptical about an app on a mobile device that
could offer precision head tracking like other products that were currently on
the market. I first started using Eyeware Beam on occasion when it was in it's
very early beta stages. Over time as the app developed and updated I
started using it more often up until where I am today and solely use the
Eyeware Beam app over other options. So in total I would say that I have
been using this product at least 2 years. I like how it brings quality head
tracking to an everyday device like a mobile phone that billions of people
use in todays society (although limited to select iPhone and iPad models due
to camera limitations).

Product comparison:
I will be honest here when comparing Eyeware Beam with the main competitors such
as TrackIR and Tobii. When it comes to tracking smoothness and precision I
got the best result from TrackIR (With Eyeware Beam I achieve a very close if not
almost unnoticeable smoothness and precision result as TrackIR. Onl most noticeable
unless you have had actual experience with both products). It comes at the cost of
price (I will cover pricing later), having to wear a physical clip with reflective
points for the IR camera to track (No need to wear a physical clip for head tracking
with Eyeware Beam) and the community involvement/ customer support is almost non
existant (So far Eyeware Beam has shown better customer support and community involvement).

With the Tobii products I have used such as the Tobii 3 and the Tobii 4c I was
unable to achieve precision and smoothness like the TrackIR and Eyeware Beam.
With the Tobii it also comes at a price (I will cover pricing later). It is also
less user friendly compared to Eyeware Beam to get setup as well as tracking
settings (Setting up Eyeware Beam and dailing in tracking settings was much easier
and quicker). They have also had some frequent product updates which means buying a
newer version of hardware, very costly (Since Eyeware Beam is a mobile app no need
to puchase newer versions of hardware!).

Key Eyeware Beam features compared:
Headtracking precision - 1.TrackIR 2.Eyeware Beam (very subtle difference) 3.Tobii
Eyetracking Support - Both Eyeware Beam (camera control not supported) and Tobii (camera control in limited game titles supported) support eyetracking. TrackIR does not support eyetracking.
Setup and ease of use - 1.Eyeware Beam 2.TrackIR 3.Tobii
Availability - 1.Eyeware Beam 2.Tobii 3.TrackIR
Mobility - 1.Eyeware Beam 2.TrackIR 3.Tobii
Customer and Community support - 1.Tobii 2.Eyeware Beam 3.TrackIR
Game titles supported - All 3 products have about the same library of supported games.
Price - 1.Eyeware Beam 2.TrackIR 5 and Tobii 5 run at about the same price.

Pricing:
Now this is where I want to get into probably the one most important decisive feature looked
at when someone is wanting to invest into a head and eye tracker. This is where Eyeware
Beam stands out from the rest. Since I live in Sweden I will be using Swedish Kronor for
the comparison. Currently Eyeware Beam offers a monthly supbscripion to unlock the app
for 65kr a month. This totals up to 780kr for a year. The current price for a TrackIR 5 or Tobii 5 is
about 2,500kr on Amazon and up from other retailers. Some are even over 3,000kr. At 2,500kr this means
I get about 3,2 years worth of unlocked features on Eyeware Beam or almost 4 years if purchased from
a local retailer at 3,000kr or more. During this 3-4 year period Eyeware Beam is constantly updated
and simply updated on your mobile device where as with TrackIR and Tobii a new hardware purchase to
upgrade is required meaning another 2,500kr or more is spent thus making a continued app subscription
much more cost efficient for the duration.

Summary:
Eyeware Beam may not be the perfect tracking product, which none of them are in reality, but it in
my opinion is the leading choice. It is very cost effective and mobile, allowing you to easily take head
and eye tracking with you. At the same time it offers top quality tracking precision and smoothness. It
easy to install and setup. The settings for the tracking itself are easily adjusted to find what suits
your preference and game title. So for these reasons compared to it's competitors I can with confidence
rate the app a 5 out of 5.