Eye Tracking Technology

What is Eye Tracking? and How about Eye Tracker? How are eye movements tracked? What is usability of Eye Tracking? To answer those question... here we go :D

Eye Tracking is a technique that offers an objective way to measure eye movements and record eye position. It is the process of measuring either the point where one is looking or the motion of an eye relative to the brain. While the Eye Tracker is a device for measuring eye positions and eye movement.

To understand how Eye Tracking works, it's important to know how the eye itself works. The human eyes are constantly moving until they stop and focus on a point. When the eyes stop to focus, it is called a fixation. When the brain interprets the visual information from the eyes, the length of fixation is usually an indication of information processing. For example, in reading studies it has been proven that the fixation lengths when we read the common words is shorter than when we read the less common words. The number of fixations can indicate how easy something to find, for example, a specific package on a shelf.

So let's take a brief for Eye Tracking usability. One of industry that already used Eye Tracker into their gadgets is SAMSUNG. Eye Tracker let the users especially SAMSUNG Galaxy S4 users read web content without having the touch screen. The phone's front camera will track the eyes and automatically scroll content when it sees that the users have read to the bottom of the screen. Thus, the phone is actually watching. This feature is further implementation of Smart Stay feature in SAMSUNG. Similar to Eyes Scroll, when Smart Stay enabled, the phone uses the front camera to track for the eyes movements and see if the users actively looking at the screen. If so, it makes sure the phone display doesn't dim or go into sleep mode. It simply can make society save the power of electricity and simplify their life of course ;) 

Eye Tracking is commonly used in a variety of advertising media. Commercials, print ads, online ads and sponsored programs need Eye Tracking technology. Why??? because Eye Tracking can be used to find out how to catch the subject’s eyes. Analyses focus on visibility of a target product or logo in the context of a magazine, newspaper, or website. In this way, an advertiser can know the success of a given campaign in terms of actual visual attention.

In other case, when you are going to search something on the search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. When it gives you the answer, which part of the result that give you an attention? Yes. A study found that in a search engine results page received more attention than the paid ads or even the first line of the result.

Next, one of the most promising applications of Eye Tracking is in the field of automotive design. Research is currently integrate Eye Tracking cameras into automobiles. By equipping automobiles with the ability to monitor when the driver is sleepy, driving safety could be dramatically enhanced. and the last but not least, since 2005, Eye Tracking is used in communication systems for disabled persons. Eye Tracking allows them to speak, send e-mail, browse the Internet and do other such activities using only their eyes. 

Name : Figlenia Tirta
Lecturer's Name : Adityo Pratomo
Campus : Surya University

References :

[1]    http://www.tobii.com/

[2]    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_tracking

[3]    http://eyetracking.me/?page_id=9
[4] http://gigaom.com/2013/03/04/thanks-to-eye-tracking-samsungs-galaxy-s4-is-sure-to-watch-you-watching-it/