Benefits
This course covers interactive techniques associated with the use of an eye tracker, an input device delivering real-time coordinates of the user's gaze. While eye tracking technology is itself not new and eye trackers have been successfully incorporated in psychological studies and virtual environments over 30 years ago, eye trackers have not been easily accessible. Moreover, eye trackers have traditionally been considered "unwieldy". Currently available off-the-shelf video eye trackers have greatly improved in their accuracy and ease of use and integration. Interest in the use of eye tracking devices is currently re-surging, as the devices are being applied in areas of studies of human visual attention and eye movement characteristics, social psychology, interface usability studies, training simulators, and as interaction devices. The course provides insight into the development, operation and use of eye-based systems in interactive applications and psychological studies.

Features
Participants will be introduced to

• the human visual system
• basics of eye movements and eye movement signal characterization
• specifications of eye tracking hardware, emphasizing state-of-the-art video eye trackers
• interactive use of eye tracking in human-computer interaction
• use of eye tracking for measuring attention in face-to-face conversations
• use of off-the-shelf musical recording technology for complex psychological studies involving multiple subjects
• example eye-based user interfaces, such as GAZE-2 and the EyeContact Sensor

Audience
Psychologists with an interest in learning about automated methods for recording human gaze behavior, usability specialists with an interest in learning how to apply eye tracking for studying user attention in (web-based) interfaces, interaction and software designers interested in eye gaze as an input modality.

Presentation
Lecture and practical demonstration using real-life examples followed by questions and answers session.

Instructor resume
Roel Vertegaal is director of the Human Media Lab, one of the premier Human-Computer Interaction laboratories in Canada, and Professor in the Department of Computing and Information Science at Queen's University, Canada. Dr. Vertegaal has been Associate Co-chair for the ACM Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference, and co-founder and Program Co-Chair for the ACM Eyetracking Research and Applications Symposium, North America's premier eye tracking conference. His first degree was in Music, at Utrecht Conservatory in The Netherlands, and he holds a Master's and Doctorate in Computer Science. Dr. Vertegaal pioneered the psychological study of gaze behavior in large groups, and the use of eye trackers as input devices for human-computer interaction. He was also one of the first to successfully convey eye contact in group video conferencing. His most recent work is on the Psychology and Design of Nonverbal Computers, focusing on the development of Attentive User Interfaces.

Sign up
To sign up for this tutorial, please send an email to Roel Vertegaal. Feel free to ask questions in advance, thus allowing the instructor to tailor the content of the tutorial to the interest of the participants.