Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is a recent technology that computes eye movements into a data stream to provide insights on consumer preferences and interactions. These data streams typically measure the point of gaze and/or the motion of an eye. Eye tracking technologies have been seen in marketing, advertisement, and other business intelligence improvements. However, these technologies have also been a point of reference for studies on information processing, patterns of decision making, and other topics spanning the cognitive science field.

History

The history of eye tracking dates back to 1879 when Louise Emile Javal, a French ophthalmologist, noticed patients did not read smoothly across pages. This marked one of the first documented scientific interests in eye movement technologies in the form of pauses and fluidity of eye movements during reading.

In 1908, Edmund Burke Huey, a contributor to the field of psychology, built a sense eye tracking device. This device consisted if a contact lens with a small hole in the pupil attached to a pointer. This pointer tracked eye movements by changing position with the movement of the eyes.

The first recordings of eye tracking were published in 1937 by psychologist Guy Thomas Buswell. The recording documented light beams on readers eyes and further documented the relationship between eye movements and reading.

The current research involving eye tracking technology has moved to focus on human computer interaction. This field of research has come into demand largely due to demand by marketing strategies for advertisement and big tech companies. This research aims to understand how our brain interacts with the media or web pages we view on our devices. Eye tracking technology has been used in this research to understand users' focuses and interests.

Introduction of eye tracking to modern technology

In the late 1990s, large advertising agencies implemented eye tracking technology to study users' reactions to internet content and to measure the potential of the (at the time) emerging internet market.

Ethical Concerns

One major concern of eye tracking technology are consumer privacy breaches. These consumer privacy breaches revolve around user consent in the case of videotaping/camera use in order to obtain the eye tracking data. In addition to unknown access to camera footage, eye tracking technology may also reveal private information about the consumers, such as race, gender, etc. These same concerns are seen in the implementation of facial recognition technology.

Current Technologies

With modern advancements in modern eye tracking technology, there are currently several popularized technologies.

Technology	creation date	description
Head Stabilized Eye-Tracking
Mobile Eye-Tracking
Remote Eye-Tracking
Integrated and embedded systems

Scientific Uses

Eye tracking technology grew in the 2000s uses expanded to implement eye tracking to aid scientific/ medical technologies. Eye tracking technology was created to aid disabled persons communication, identify early ways to identify/diagnose eye abnormalities, and explain cognitive growth throughout childhood. Further, it was used in the fields of computer science to test user experience/ usability of new websites and software.

Google Glass

Although eye-tracking technology had been around for decades, however, it came into media appearance with the introduction of google glass in 2014. Google filed patents to implement cutting edge eye tracking technology into their consumer smart-eyeware. There were vocal privacy concerns that marked one of the first wide debates on the ethical concerns of this technology.

References

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X13000316 https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-eye-tracking/ https://medium.com/@eyesee/eye-tracking-through-history-b2e5c7029443 https://www.bitbrain.com/blog/eye-tracking-devices https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eye-tracking-in-google-glass-a-window-into-the-soul/ https://1vv82dtluny8l2py3ufo882r-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2020/11/Ethics-eyetracker_EHR-formatted.pdf https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/privacy-invading-potential-eye-tracking-technology