ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a methodology using digital filters to detect saccades and fixations. The method allows for discrimination of saccades and nystagmus fast-phase movements by means of adaptive time domain template matching, rapidly and on-line in the presence of noise. Rapid detection of saccadic eye movements using a digital filtering scheme has been applied to the on-line processing of vestibular nystagmus. At least one algorithm is used to classify fixations as well as saccades in an off-line fashion using techniques similar to ones used in this chapter. One method employs several adaptive methods for establishing thresholds and rejecting artifacts. A number of workers have investigated the automatic detection of saccades and/or fast phases of nystagmus, and several hardware methods have been reported. These methods generally employ analog and/or digital circuits that detect saccadic events on the basis of their velocity or acceleration exceeding a threshold.
