Eye Tracking Research

Evaluating how people perform tasks while they interact with user interfaces is a well-studied problem within human-computer interaction (HCI) research. The traditional goal of such usability evaluations has been the determination of the effectiveness (error rate) and efficiency (speed to task completion) of task performance using a particular interface.

Eye tracking is a technique which tracks user's eye movements and can be used as a complimentary method to assist in evaluating task performance. By determining the coordinates of where a person is focusing while they perform a task, eye-tracking produces a much more fine-grained record of how a task is completed than is possible with the more traditional HCI methods (e.g., surveys, Talk-Aloud Protocols) Recent directions within eye tracking research have focused on novel uses of eye tracking data.

These newer methods have focused on the correlation of patterns in the eye tracking data related to the qualities of the user's interactions. One possibility, and the focus of my work, is the connection between eye tracking data and how well users perform a task. Establishing such a correlation is significant in that it would allow for the design of automated computer systems capable of detecting when users are in need of assistance.

The current direction of my work is the creation of a framework which will allow for the automatic detection of user state (e.g., frustration, success) based only upon eye tracking data.

Collecting and analyzing eye tracking data can also provide important information for diverse groups such as assistive technology application developers, UX designers, and HCI researchers. Below is a small collection of resources that you might find helpful if you're interested in getting started with an eye tracking project.

Eye Tracking Papers

R.J.K. Jacob and K.S. Karn, "Eye Tracking in Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Research: Ready to Deliver the Promises (Section Commentary)," in The Mind's Eye: Cognitive and Applied Aspects of Eye Movement Research, ed. by J. Hyona, R. Radach, and H. Deubel, pp. 573-605, Amsterdam, Elsevier Science (2003) [link to paper]

Duchowski, A. (2002). "A breadth-first survey of eye-tracking applications." Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 34(4): 455-470 [link to paper]

Bartels, M. and S. P. Marshall (2006). Eye tracking insights into cognitive modeling. Proceedings of the 2008 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications. San Diego, California, ACM.

Bednarik, R. and M. Tukiainen (2008). Temporal eye-tracking data: evolution of debugging strategies with multiple representations. Proceedings of the 2010 Symposium on Eye-Tracking Research & Applications. Savannah, Georgia, ACM: 99-102.

Fitts, P., Jones, R., and Milton, J. (1950). "Eye movements of aircraft pilots during instrument-landing approaches." Aeronautical Engineering Review 9: 24-29.

Josephson, S. and M. E. Holmes (2006). Clutter or content?: how on-screen enhancements affect how TV viewers scan and what they learn. Proceedings of the 2008 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications. San Diego, California, ACM.

Kasarskis, P., Stehwien, J., Hickox, J., Aretz, A., Wickens, C. (2001). Comparison of expert and novice scan behaviors during VFR flight. 11th International Symposium on Aviation Psychology.

Uwano, H., M. Nakamura, et al. (2006). Analyzing individual performance of source code review using reviewers' eye movement. Proceedings of the 2010 Symposium on Eye-Tracking Research & Applications. San Diego, California, ACM.

Eye Tracking Books

Duchowski, A. T. (2007). Eye Tracking Methodology: Theory and Practice, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

Holmqvist, K. (2011). Eye tracking : a comprehensive guide to methods and measures. Oxford; New York, Oxford University Press.

Wickens, C. D. and J. S. McCarley (2008). Applied attention theory. Boca Raton, CRC Press.

Eye Tracking Conferences

Eye Tracking and Research Applications ETRA