Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is an umbrella term for modern technology that computes eye movements into a data stream. This data provides insights on consumer preferences and interactions. These data streams typically measure the point of gaze and/or the motion of an eye and are matched with behavioral and cognitive sciences to transform this data into usable research. Eye tracking technologies have seen recent growth 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.

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. The current research shift involving eye tracking technology has encompassed a 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 a diagnostic role in this research to understand users' preferences, behaviors, and opinions. This research allows for companies' innovation of strategic user experience designs. Innovation in this field, specifically, has been significant due to its ability to inform the product design process for large companies.

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. There have been many efforts in the eye tracking field to de-identify consumer data, as well as create heat or noise maps for tracking rather than direct video footage. However, in addition to big tech companies access to footage without acknowledged consent, eye tracking technology may also reveal private information about the consumers, such as race, gender, etc. Further, these companies typically create decision making models based off the consumers data which reveal intention, cognitive ability, opinion, etc. This has caused concern among the public which has caused a recent pressure on policy makers and corporations to reevaluate consumer privacy regulations. These same concerns are often 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	examples	description
Head Stabilized Eye-Tracking	EyeLink1000 Plus	This is a technology typically used in research studies. A participants head is held in place by a device in order to achieve accuracy, control of the visual environment, and in order to match this technology with other research methods (ie. eye scanner).
Mobile Eye-Tracking	Google Glass	This is the technology consists of a wearable device in which cameras or mirrors are able to track the users' vision and is consistent with tech companies expansion into the eyewear industry.
Remote Eye-Tracking	iPhone camera	Remote Eye Tracking is typically set up on a devices camera and tracks the pupil to understand the pupils movement in relation to the devices screen. This is the modern technology associated with the most abundant ethical concerns as it is what companies use to aggregate large amounts of user eye tracking data.
Integrated and embedded systems	virtual reality	This eye tracking technology is not only tracking the users' eye movements, but creating an experiences often reliant on the eye movements. It often creates a visual world entirely separate from the users' space and has multiple cameras and/or navigation devices to guide a user through the experience.

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.forbes.com/sites/solrogers/2019/02/05/seven-reasons-why-eye-tracking-will-fundamentally-change-vr/?sh=632c7ebd3459

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 hhttp://andrewd.ces.clemson.edu/research/vislab/docs/BET107cr.pdf https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7041 http://andrewd.ces.clemson.edu/research/vislab/docs/BET107cr.pdf https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3314111.3319823

Sareen, S. S. (2014). Analysis of eye tracking data obtained by customers' product evaluations (Order No. 1565246). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ CIC Institutions; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1616587578). Retrieved from https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/analysis-eye-tracking-data-obtained-customers/docview/1616587578/se-2?accountid=14667

Holmqvist, K., Nystrom, M., Andersson, R., Dewhurst, R., Jarodzka, H., & Weijer, J. van de. (2015). Eye-tracking: a comprehensive guide to methods and measures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.