PyEtSimul: An Open-Source Python Software Framework for Eye Tracking Simulation

PyEtSimul is an open-source Python framework for simulating video-based eye trackers by generating synthetic eye features through geometric modeling. The framework allows flexible positioning of eyes, cameras, and light sources in 3D space, with controlled variation of eye anatomical features and camera properties. For full documentation, see pyetsimul.readthedocs.io.

About

Core functionalities are based on "A Software Framework for Simulating Eye Trackers" by Böhme et al. (2008), ported from the original MATLAB codebase. This Python implementation includes enhancements, improvements, bug fixes, and additional features.

[!WARNING] Note: There is no guarantee that this code works exactly like the original MATLAB implementation.

Installation

Requirements

• Python ≥3.11

From PyPI

pip install pyetsimul

Using uv

uv pip install pyetsimul

From source

git clone https://github.com/mh-salari/pyetsimul.git
cd pyetsimul
uv sync

Or with pip:

git clone https://github.com/mh-salari/pyetsimul.git
cd pyetsimul
python3 -m pip install .

For development:

git clone https://github.com/mh-salari/pyetsimul.git
cd pyetsimul
python3 -m pip install -e .

Examples

After installation, explore the various examples in the examples/ directory to see PyEtSimul in action.

Citation

Cite as:

Salari, M., Niehorster, D. C., Hansen, D. W., & Bednarik, R. (2026).
PyEtSimul: An Open-Source Python Framework for Eye-Tracking Simulation.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI), ETRA 2026. ACM.
DOI: 10.1145/3806023

Also cite the original work:

Martin Böhme, Michael Dorr, Mathis Graw, Thomas Martinetz, and Erhardt Barth.
"A software framework for simulating eye trackers."
In Proceedings of the 2008 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA '08),
pages 251-258, ACM, 2008.

Original MATLAB Implementation

For the original MATLAB version and detailed background, visit: https://github.com/mh-salari/et_simul-1.01

Acknowledgments

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation funding program under grant agreement No 101072410, Eyes4ICU project.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later