Eye Tracking Technology

Eye tracking may sound like something from a science fiction movie, but it is in fact widely used today and likely to become even more prevalent in the near future.

First off, it is worth mentioning that eye tracking isn't synonymous with eye scanning, which is often used as a means of identification, particularly in areas or situations that require tight security. Films such as Minority Report, Charlie's Angels, and Gattaca all highlight this possibility.

In the realm of eye tracking, however, most eye tracking is and has historically been done in experimental settings, with complex and bulky set-ups and expensive pieces of machinery. This research enables scientists to better understand the visual system, with applications ranging from psychology, to cognitive linguistics, to marketing.

The commercial sector has also become increasingly interested in utilising eye tracking technology, in order to better understand the ways in which consumers interact with and absorb materials that they are presented with. Typically, subjects are presented with a piece of stimuli, such as a website, television programme, commercial, newspaper, package, or piece of software, and eye tracking technologies provides information that can be analysed to understand the stimuli’s effectiveness, and potentially enable organisations to choose between competing prototypes.

Beyond research, many are not aware that eye tracking has current medical applications. Software is used during laser eye surgery to ensure that eye movement doesn’t compromise the effectiveness of the procedure. Many patients are nervous beforehand, particularly as it is difficult to keep the eye perfectly still for any length of time, so the presence of this software should come as a relief to those considering treatment. These tracking tools operate at a very high frequency, to ensure that the natural eye movements are compensated for and the eye remains centred for the duration of the procedure.

Eye tracking is also being used to facilitate communication and enable computer usage for those, for example, who are suffering from paralysis. Jean-Dominique Bauby gained fame as he dictated his entire novel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by blinking his left eye, but such technologies render such laborious processes outdated.

The automotive industry may also stand to gain from the development of eye tracking technologies. Use of these technologies in automobiles could enable monitoring of drivers’ levels of concentration and alertness, and respond immediately if the driver becomes inattentive. This could result in a significant decrease in automobile accidents, as drowsiness is a common cause of such accidents.

Finally, with the increasing popularity of such devices as the Kindle and iPad, technologies are currently in development that have the potential to change the act of reading entirely, making it a more interactive process than it has ever been before. Such technologies could monitor your reading progress, offer definitions of words that stump you, prompt you if you lose your place, and refer to other reference materials relevant to what your eyes are focused on. While they are not yet available in the e-readers on the market, they will likely be available in updated versions of the future.

Technology may also be developed for television. Currently, a new technology is being implemented in Orange’s cable service that responds to the viewer’s movement, making the search for the remote control a thing of the past. It is not incomprehensible that this technology may one day respond to simple eye movements from viewers. There would be potential benefits for advertisers and cable companies as well, if they were able to use such technologies to monitor exactly how many viewers are tuned it at a certain time, and how their attention spans respond to programmes and commercials. The storing and ownership of such data, of course, would raise a host of privacy and other issues, similar to the issues that Google is currently dealing with regarding the cookies of data that they store on users' behaviours and preferences.