Design of a compacted-sized eye-tracking system with indexed gaze target for ring gantry linear accelerators: verification study using a motorized eye phantom

<i><b>Background</b></i>: Eye-tracking systems and gaze targets provide effective immobilization of the eye during ocular radiation therapy treatment. This study proposes a compact-sized eye-tracking system with a gaze target to provide a simple setup in a ring gantry LINAC. The device should have accurate repositioning, while the gaze target should be easily interchangeable.<i><b>Methods</b></i>: A compact-sized camera was mounted on a 3D-printed stand integrated with a gaze target. The gaze target can be fixed in different positions using an indexed-positioning system. The repositioning accuracy of this system was evaluated using Computed Tomography (CT) scans. The iris center position of the eye phantom was detected using fast radial symmetry transform. The iris center shift in the camera plane was converted to the 3D absolute displacement using the approximation of the spherical rotation of the eye globe. The tolerance of iris motion from gazing toward the gaze target in the camera plane can be estimated with prior knowledge of the iris center location when gazing toward the camera. The detection accuracy was evaluated on a motorized spherical eye phantom.<i><b>Results</b></i>: The mean repositioning errors of the camera and the gaze target were 0.18 mm (Range: 0.08-0.36 mm) and 0.31 mm (Range: 0.03-0.56 mm), respectively. For a typical distance of 200 mm from the camera to the tracked eye, the largest absolute error of iris center detection on a motorized spherical eye phantom was 0.08 mm, while the mean absolute error was less than the resolution of one pixel.<i><b>Conclusions</b></i>: This study proposed a compact-sized eye-tracking system with a gaze target with an easily reproducible setup. By converting the displacement of the motorized eye phantom iris center location in the camera plane to 3D coordinate displacement, accurate tolerance of the gaze direction of the eye can be achieved.