SOLICITATION NOTICE
66 -- Eye Tracking System
- Notice Date
- 6/12/2008
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 423430
— Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Office of Acquisitions, 6120 Executive Blvd., EPS Suite 600, Rockville, Maryland, 20852
- ZIP Code
- 20852
- Solicitation Number
- NCI-80090-NG
- Archive Date
- 7/8/2008
- Point of Contact
- Ashley L. Virts, , Malinda L Holdcraft,, Phone: (301) 402-4509
- E-Mail Address
-
virtsa@mail.nih.gov, holdcram@exchange.nih.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The National Cancer Institute (NCI) plans to procure on a sole source basis, an Eye Tracker System with Tobii Technology, Inc; 510 N. Washington Street, Ste. 200; Falls Church, Virginia 22046. This acquisition will be conducted under the procedures for acquiring commercial items authorized in FAR Part 12 and under the authority to use simplified procedures for commercial requirements as provided in FAR 13.501. The North American Industry Classification System code is 334516 and the business size standard is 500 employees. This notice is not a request for competitive quotation. However, if any interested party believes it can meet the above requirement, it may submit a statement of capabilities. The statement of capabilities and any other information furnished must be in writing and must contain material in sufficient detail to allow NCI to determine if the party can perform the requirement. No faxed or emailed capability statements will be accepted. Contractor shall provide one (1) original and one (1) copy of the capability statement. Capability statements must be received in the contracting office by 1:00 PM EST, on June 23, 2008. All questions must be in writing and can be faxed or emailed to: Malinda Holdcraft, Contract Specialist via electronic mail at holdcram@exchange.nih.gov or fax 301-402-4513. It is the vendors’ responsibility to ensure all questions have been received in the contracting office. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. No collect calls will be accepted. In order to receive an award, contractors must be registered and have valid certification in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and the Online Representations and Certifications Applications (ORCA). Reference: NCI-80090-NG on all correspondence. Period of Performance shall be 12 months from date of award time with 4 One Year Options. JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION: Part I: Background information and description of requirements: The Office of Market Research and Evaluation (OMRE) at NCI implements about 50 user-centered design research projects each year. Recently, OMRE has included eye tracking as one of the research methods used to conduct formative and evaluation research. With eye tracking, a participant sits in front of a monitor (that looks like a desktop computer) and is asked to review whatever images are projected on the screen (e.g., a website such as www.cancer.gov). The eye tracking hardware has low-infrared (similar to sunlight) light systems built into it that reflects off of participants’ pupils back to the device; this allows the device software to translate that information into a visual tracking of where the participants’ eyes look on the screen even if they are not aware they are looking there. The eye tracking system tells us data about the design of a communication tool (website, brochure, web tool etc.) that cannot be derived any other way. ¬Value-added Research Functions Currently, the user-centered design research performed at OMRE involves asking participants to look at designs and computer mock-ups and reporting back to us what sections, items, and components of the tools they believed to be important and relevant to their task at hand (e.g., in looking at www.cancer.gov homepage, participants might be asked where they first looked, why, what areas were most helpful to them, etc.). The data collected, though valuable, are limited in that they are reflective of a self-report of what the participant remembers and perceives. An eye tracker would allow us to triangulate the current research methods used in OMRE and provide richer, more quantifiable data that are not reliant on participants’ self-reports to aid the developers of web images and tools. Part II: Facts and Reasons to Justify Other than Full and Open Competition: Statutory Authority Statute: This justification has been prepared under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253 (c)(1) as set forth in 13.106-1 (b)(2) and 13.501(a)(1). (b) Soliciting from a single source. (2) For sole source acquisitions of commercial items in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold conducted pursuant to subpart 13.5, the requirements at 13.501(a) apply. No other requirement and/or type for supply or service will satisfy agency need. Justification Tobii Technology is the only entity who provides an eye tracking hardware/software package capable of meeting all requirements needed. No other vendor offers a product with all the key requirements or salient characteristics. Tobii Technology, founded in 2001 is an international leader in the field of eye tracking and eye control. The innovative technology development has revolutionized eye tracking by making it plug-and-play, fully automatic and easy to use and widely used within the scientific community and in commercial market research and usability industry. Tobii Technology main company focus is on eye tracking hardware and software that enables people with disabilities to interact with a computing device using only their eyes. There are no peripheral hardware requirements for communicating with the device: all that is needed are eyes. Utilizing this product will provide OMRE an objective insight into NCI’s consumer attention and effectiveness of NCI’s print advertising, TV commercials, product packaging, and online marketing. The concept of eye tracking technology in the marketing and usability industry, especially for NCI is to pre-test and analyze website data gain useful data and draw conclusions around what works or doesn’t work the electronic communication media. Each eye tracker session allows a large number of stimuli to be selected to help facilitate testing. The stimuli can be presented to the viewer randomly, but all at the same time. Having the flexibility to use one or more stimuli could give great comparative data examining when a webpage is too busy and annoying or perfectly pleasing. Almost everything that OMRE staff members need to know about specific stimuli is included, which saves time and money on development. We are requesting a sole source purchase from Tobii Technology, Inc. of their Tobii T60 Eyetracker system (primary tracking component), which includes the eyegaze-tracking device and camera built into the display as well as the accompanying Tobii Studio Enterprise software. Unlike Tobii, other like-products are physically intrusive to the participants where the device is either head-mounted or placed on a table directly in front of the participants (see links above for photos). The Tobii equipment is built into the hardware and simply resembles a computer monitor. Specifications of instrumentation needed: REQUIREMENT DESCRIPTION A.Key Requirements 1.Eye tracking system/technology must be integrated with a 17” TFT display with resolution up to 1280x1024 pixels 2.Must have an integrated user camera which is invisible to subjects. 3Must allow head movement of at least 44 x 20 x 30 cm at 60cm from tracker. 4.Must automatically optimize for bright pupil and dark pupil response subjects 5.System must allow export of data to SPSS, Matlab 6.Customize the content of the analysis by placing notes or “areas of interest” markings throughout the recorded analysis. This feature can be used to post information such as facial expressions, mouse clicks, etc. related to a given session
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