History of eye-trackingInformation CultureSep. 10 2012Megan McKeever

We’ll start in 1879.. French Ophthalmologist Louis Emile Javal discovered that

eyes do not move continuously through text. Instead, our eyes make quick, short movements and pauses, or “saccades.” He learned this through mere observation; there was no

technology involved. Before this, it was thought the eye glided easily through text.

Javal’s colleague, Landolt, later discovered that participants eye movements differed depending on what subject they were reading. He found that reading of a foreign language, required more

pauses, as did reading detached words, numbers and proper nouns. (1891)

The first eye-tracking “technology” Edmund Burke Huey built a device in the early 1900s to

track eye movement in reading, which he published in the Psychology and Pedagogy of Reader.

The experiment required participants to wear a plaster cup over one eye. The cup had a small hole in it, which was attached to an aluminum pointer. As the participant read, the pointer traced on paper. This allowed Huey to see where the participant was

reading and what words he/she paused on. This is the first physical record of eye-tracking.

Huey’s Results• Huey's study showed that the first

fixation in a line is usually not the first word but at the second or third word.

• And, the final fixation is usually not at the last word.

• Huey's data also demonstrated that readers fixated on anywhere from 20 to 70 percent of the words in a line.• These results showed evidence that

reading is not a process of word-by-word identification, instead readers decide where and when to fixate while reading.

Buswell and Judd, 1922-37 Buswell and Judd turned to photography to

track eye movement. Photographed a beam of light reflected first to

the participant’s cornea from silvered glass mirrors, and then from the cornea through a camera lens to moving kinetoscope film.

The changing positions of the beam of light were recorded on film, which provided an "accurate record showing the position and duration of each fixation of the eye while the subject reads.”

Their results supported that not only do different readers read differently, but individual readers read differently depending on the circumstance.

Tinker’s Landmark, 1936 Tinker's landmark 1936 study investigated the reliability and validity of eye-movement research

as it applies to reading. One of his primary concerns was whether the artificial situation that necessarily accompanied eye-movement studies conducted in the laboratory caused subjects to alter significantly their reading strategies and processes. He had 57 college students read one version of a reading test at a table away from the eye-movement apparatus and then read another version of the test while under typical eye-movement recording conditions. The results were encouraging for eye-movement researchers: “Although some subjects did better and some poorer before the camera, the group as a whole gave an entirely typical performance in the photographic situation” (Tinker, 1936, p. 742). Tinker's conclusion that eye-movement research can reveal authentic reading behavior has allowed workers in this area to extend their findings to situations outside the laboratory. Despite the exciting work of these early investigators, the studies undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century were followed by a long hiatus, blamed by some on the influence of the prevailing behaviorist doctrine of the time (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). By the late 1960s, however, eye-movement recording apparatuses, while operating on the same basic principles as earlier equipment, became much more sophisticated. Microanalyses of eye behavior now became possible. Accordingly, more recent eye-movement research is characterized not by broad generalizations, but by smaller scale contributions to our overall knowledge about the role of the eye in reading.

Eye-tracking and Marketing, 1980s

Future: Gaming

These glasses, created by students at Imperial College London, allow users to navigate through a game with their eyes. Glasses monitor the

pupils and allow users to move game objects with their eyes. http://www.metro.co.uk/news/883958-what-the-future-holds-for-eye-tracking-

technology

Future: Spying? As devices, such as tablets, laptops and smartphones

are built with front-facing cameras, they will be equipped with technology that lets them record not just what we are reading, but how we are reading. Apple has already filed a patent for a 3-D eye-tracking

graphical user interface for personal electronic devices like the iPhone and iPad. And European company Senseye is planning to have eye-tracking software built into its smartphones next year.

Works citedInfluential Studies in eye-movement research http://www.readingonline.org/research/eyemove.htmlFuture eye-tracking systems will read your mindhttp://news.discovery.com/tech/future-eye-tracking-120328.htmlWhat the future holds for eye-tracking technology - http://www.metro.co.uk/news/883958-what-the-future-holds-for-eye-tracking-technologyA brief history of eye-trackinghttp://www.uxbooth.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-eye-tracking/