What is Eye Tracking?

Eye tracking is a technique used to determine where a person is looking. The concepts underlying eye tracking are deceptively simple: track the movements of the user's eyes and note what the pupils are doing while the user is looking at a particular feature. In practice, however, these measures are difficult to achieve and require high-precision instruments as well as sophisticated data analysis and interpretation. Equipment which is used to do this are called eye trackers.

Eye movements made during reading and picture identification provide useful information about the processes by which people understand visual input and integrate it with knowledge and memory. Researchers have used eye tracking for studying how people read, solve problems, look at pictures, scan instrument panels, and perform complex tasks.

Eye Tracking Research

To date, we use eyetrackers for several studies funded by the Department of Defense. One looks at how naval officers use a new display designed to assist them in making tactical decisions, the second investigates how novices acquire critical knowledge needed to make tactical decisions and a third focuses on psychophysiological measures of cognitive workload.

Commercial Eye Tracking

Commercial eye tracking is now available through EyeTracking Inc (ETI). ETI is a joint venture with Dr. Sandra Marshall, her research team and San Diego State University. For the past 15 years, Dr. Marshall has had research support from the U.S. Department of Defense to examine important questions about how individuals process information. Her recent work has incorporated eye tracking, and in the course of carrying out her theoretical research, she has made a number of exciting breakthroughs in measuring and interpreting eye data. These breakthroughs are protected by patent and are licensed exclusively to ETI, the EyeTracking Research Company.TM