# Neuromorphic Eye Tracking for Low-Latency Pupil Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09969 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.09969/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Dec 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [MobileNets: Efficient Convolutional Neural Networks for Mobile Vision Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.04861/) (2017)
- [Event-based Vision: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08405/) (2019)
- [Training Spiking Neural Networks Using Lessons From Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12894/) (2021)
- [MPIIGaze: Real-World Dataset and Deep Appearance-Based Gaze Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.09017/) (2017)
- [Event Based, Near Eye Gaze Tracking Beyond 10,000Hz](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.03577/) (2020)
- [Rigid-Motion Scattering for Texture Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1403.1687/) (2014)
- [Speck: A Smart event-based Vision Sensor with a low latency 327K Neuron Convolutional Neuronal Network Processing Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06793/) (2023)
- [Sparse Local Patch Transformer for Robust Face Alignment and Landmarks Inherent Relation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.06541/) (2022)
- [3ET: Efficient Event-based Eye Tracking using a Change-Based ConvLSTM Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11771/) (2023)
- [Real-Time Face & Eye Tracking and Blink Detection using Event Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08278/) (2020)
- [Retina : Low-Power Eye Tracking with Event Camera and Spiking Hardware](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00425/) (2023)
- [Real-Time Gaze Tracking with Event-Driven Eye Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.07367/) (2022)
- [Event-Based Eye Tracking. AIS 2024 Challenge Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.11770/) (2024)
- [A Simple and Effective Point-based Network for Event Camera 6-DOFs Pose Relocalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19412/) (2024)
- [A Lightweight Spatiotemporal Network for Online Eye Tracking with Event Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08858/) (2024)
- [MambaPupil: Bidirectional Selective Recurrent model for Event-based Eye tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.12083/) (2024)
- [FACET: Fast and Accurate Event-Based Eye Tracking Using Ellipse Modeling for Extended Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15584/) (2024)
- [Open the box of digital neuromorphic processor: Towards effective algorithm-hardware co-design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15224/) (2023)
- [Exploring Temporal Dynamics in Event-based Eye Tracker](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23725/) (2025)
- [Event-Based Eye Tracking. 2025 Event-based Vision Workshop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18249/) (2025)
- [Evaluating Eye Tracking Signal Quality with Real-time Gaze Interaction Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.03708/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Eye tracking for wearable systems demands low latency and milliwatt-level power, but conventional frame-based pipelines struggle with motion blur, high compute cost, and limited temporal resolution. Such capabilities are vital for enabling seamless and responsive interaction in emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), where understanding user gaze is key to immersion and interface design. Neuromorphic sensors and spiking neural networks (SNNs) offer a promising alternative, yet existing SNN approaches are either too specialized or fall short of the performance of modern ANN architectures. This paper presents a neuromorphic version of top-performing event-based eye-tracking models, replacing their recurrent and attention modules with lightweight LIF layers and exploiting depth-wise separable convolutions to reduce model complexity. Our models obtain 3.7-4.1px mean error, approaching the accuracy of the application-specific neuromorphic system, Retina (3.24px), while reducing model size by 20x and theoretical compute by 850x, compared to the closest ANN variant of the proposed model. These efficient variants are projected to operate at an estimated 3.9-4.9 mW with 3 ms latency at 1 kHz. The present results indicate that high-performing event-based eye-tracking architectures can be redesigned as SNNs with substantial efficiency gains, while retaining accuracy suitable for real-time wearable deployment.