1) In 1879, Javal discovered that eyes move in quick movements (saccades) rather than continuously when reading, contradicting the previous belief that eyes glide smoothly. 2) In the early 1900s, Huey built the first device to physically track eye movements during reading, finding that eyes do not fixate on every word. 3) In the 1920s-1930s, Buswell and Judd developed photographic techniques to record eye movements with more accuracy, supporting that reading strategies differ between readers and situations.

1. History of
eye-tracking
Information Culture
Sep. 10 2012
Megan McKeever

2. 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)

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Eye-tracking and Marketing, 1980s

8. 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 http://www.metro.co.uk/news/883958-what-the-future-holds-for-eye-tracking-
their eyes. technology

9. 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.

10. Works cited
Influential Studies in eye-movement research
http://www.readingonline.org/research/eyemove.html
Future eye-tracking systems will read your mind
http://news.discovery.com/tech/future-eye-tracking-
120328.html
What the future holds for eye-tracking technology -
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/883958-what-the-future-
holds-for-eye-tracking-technology
A brief history of eye-tracking
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-eye-
tracking/