Abstract

Recent developments in mobile eye tracking equipment and automated eye movement analysis point the way toward unobtrusive eye-based human-computer interfaces that are pervasively usable in everyday life. We call this new paradigm pervasive eye tracking – continuous eye monitoring and analysis 24/7. The potential applications for the ability to track and analyse eye movements anywhere and any time call for new research to further develop and understand visual behaviour in daily life settings.

In the first part of my talk I will provide a short history of stationary and mobile eye tracking. I will introduce the emerging field of pervasive eye tracking research and will highlight its key characteristics as well as research challenges. I will introduce a novel machine learning based approach to eye movement analysis that – in contrast to traditional approaches using gaze – focuses on analysing the dynamics of eye movements over time. In the second part of my talk I will report on several user studies using this approach, more specifically eye-based activity recognition as well as inference of visual memory recall and concentration from eye and body movements. I will conclude my talk by identifying particular promising research directions for pervasive eye tracking in computer science and experimental psychology.