Wearable Eye Tracking in Libraries

One of the most exciting advances in eye tracking technologies is the development of lightweight wearable eye trackers, usually in the form of glasses, that can capture participants’ eye movements across a physical... [ view full abstract ]

One of the most exciting advances in eye tracking technologies is the development of lightweight wearable eye trackers, usually in the form of glasses, that can capture participants’ eye movements across a physical environment. Wearable eye tracking studies are still quite new; there are no example studies in Lund’s (2016) literature review of eye tracking in libraries, and only a handful in the related field of museum visitor studies. One such study compared label viewing in an art museum and a lab setting, and found that while reading time did not differ between contexts, participants viewed more total artworks in the museum context, and viewing increased with self-reported appreciation of art (Brieber, Nadal, Leder, & Rosenberg, 2014). Another study employed wearable eye tracking to compare experts’ and novices’ trajectories through museum exhibitions and found 10 distinct viewing patterns distributed across their visitors (Eghbal-Azar & Widlok, 2013). They also noted that the eye tracking data was able to show how visitors’ gaze alternated between two closely placed exhibits—a finding that would not have been possible with traditional observational methods. 

This workshop will demonstrate wearable eye tracking technology and discuss how it has been used to study library exhibitions at our institution. In addition, I will demonstrate the potential for other uses of this technology, including wayfinding and shelf studies.