Don eyetracking subjects have to wear funny headgear with cameras, and wouldn that alter the reading experience such that its not very realistic?
It used to be that eyetracking research required people to wear headsets with small cameras that tracked the movement of their eyes and matched that to what they were viewing. The technology has now improved, so that in Eyetrack III our test subjects did not have to wear anything on their heads. They simply sat in a desk chair and looked at a standard size (17 inch) computer monitor.It wasn’t a typical monitor, though. Current-generation eyetrackers put a small video camera below the screen, which is calibrated and locked on to the test subject’s gaze. As long as the person’s head doesn’t move outside of the camera’s field of view (a region of space about a cubic foot — more than enough leeway for typical usage), the eyetracker stays on target throughout the session.The technology has gotten so good that today there exists eyetracking equipment that can use a telephoto lens and track a stationary person’s gaze from 20 feet away. (We didn’t use such equipment for Eyetrack III.
It used to be that eyetracking research required people to wear headsets with small cameras that tracked the movement of their eyes and matched that to what they were viewing. The technology has now improved, so that in Eyetrack III our test subjects did not have to wear anything on their heads. They simply sat in a desk chair and looked at a standard size (17 inch) computer monitor. It wasn’t a typical monitor, though. Current-generation eyetrackers put a small video camera below the screen, which is calibrated and locked on to the test subject’s gaze. As long as the person’s head doesn’t move outside of the camera’s field of view (a region of space about a cubic foot — more than enough leeway for typical usage), the eyetracker stays on target throughout the session. The technology has gotten so good that today there exists eyetracking equipment that can use a telephoto lens and track a stationary person’s gaze from 20 feet away.
