• DOI:10.1081/E-EBBE2-120034143
• Corpus ID: 201134197

Eye Tracking: Research areas and applications.

@inproceedings{Richardson2008EyeTR,
  title={Eye Tracking: Research areas and applications.},
  author={Daniel C. Richardson and Michael J. Spivey},
  year={2008}
}

• Daniel C. Richardson, M. Spivey
• Published 28 May 2008
• Biology

Introduction Eye movements are arguably the most frequent of all human movements (Bridgeman, 1992). Large ballistic scanning movements called saccades typically occur 3-4 times every second. As one early researcher put it, " there seems to be an almost ceaseless twitching, as if rest for more than an instant were the one thing not to be endured " (Stratton, 1906). Indeed, virtually all animals with developed visual systems actively control their gaze using eye or head movements (Land, 1995). This frenetic movement is a consequence of the enormous amount of visual information that is available to an organism. Rather than devote resources to processing it all in detail, evolution appears to have selected a solution whereby small portions of the visual world are inspected in a rapid sequence (Treue, 2001). Consequently, the human eye monitors a visual field of about 200º, but receives detailed information from only 2º (Levi, Klein, & Aitsebaomo, 1985). This region, about the size of a thumbnail at arm's length, is called the fovea, and is jerked around at speeds of up to 500º a second, during which its sensitivity drops to During the 200-300 milliseconds it is at rest, however, over 30,000 densely packed photoreceptors in the fovea provide high acuity color vision. Eye movements, therefore, are fundamental to the operation of the visual system. 'Eye movement research' relates to a patchwork of fields more diverse than the study of perceptual systems, however. Due to their close relation to attentional mechanisms, saccades can provide insight into cognitive processes such as language comprehension, memory, mental imagery and decision making. Eye movement research is of great interest in the study of neuroscience and psychiatry, as well as ergonomics, advertising and design. Since eye movements can be controlled volitionally, to some degree, and tracked by modern technology with great speed and precision, they can now be used as a powerful input device, and have many practical applications in human-computer interactions. The first data regarding eye movements were obtained either through introspection or by the experimenter observing a subject's eye using a mirror, telescope or peep hole. These methods were dubious, of course, since any feature of the eye being studied could be obscured by the eye doing the studying. The first significant advance, therefore, was the invention of mechanical devices that would translate the eye's movements into permanent, objective records of its motion. (Taylor, 1971) At the end …