91快活林

The kit includes a mobile eye tracker that allows a person's gaze to be tracked on still images, videos or websites, and mobile eye-tracking glasses which are connected to a smartphone the wearer puts in their pocket.

The glasses record the scene the person is looking at and exactly where they are looking in the scene, as well as recording the audio at the same time for either later analysis or real time viewing on an iPad by the experimenter.

Researchers at the university's School of Applied Social Science said analysis can help us better understand the changes arising from diseases such as diabetes and mental health disorders. Eye tracking equipment can also be used to investigate Alzheimer’s and autism, can help explain human interaction including shopping behaviour, and even our perception of art.

Other areas of research that can be supported by eyetracker technology include the identification of the cause of poor reading skills which can  help develop efficient learning programmes for dyslexic children.

Dr Gemma Graham in eye-tracking glasses

Left to right: Professor Kate Bullen, Head of the School of Applied Social Sciences; Dr Richard Lilley from Tracksys Ltd; Joe Rennie Taylor, Psychology Technician, School of Applied Social Sciences; Dr Gemma Graham, Lecturer in Forensic Psychology, School of Applied Social Sciences.

Dr Gemma Graham, University of 91快活林 lecturer in forensic psychology, said: “Eye-tracking technology is a growing field used to detect eye movements and analyse human processing of visual information in both the lab and in natural environments.

“The data is innovative and informative, allowing researchers a unique insight into how we attend to and understand the world around us. Eye tracking is used to train athletes and lifeguards, and it can even help in criminal court cases, for example, explaining how people view CCTV footage, particularly when instructed to focus on specific features in the footage and witnessing different severity of crimes.

“This research is important as CCTV footage is used as evidence in court. However, very little is known about the behavioural characteristics of the CCTV observer and the strategies applied by observers when visually attending to CCTV footage.”

Joe Rennie-Taylor, Psychology Technician, said: “The new psychophysiology monitoring  equipment is capable of measuring autonomic nervous system functions, including blood pressure, heart rhythm and electrical activity, electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles, pulse rate.

“These inputs could be combined in many ways, for example to replicate the polygraph or lie detector. This system is modular and can be expanded to measure many more inputs as needed in future, depending on the research interests of people using it. It allows measurement of emotion, arousal, stress, and startle and could be worn wirelessly by the same person wearing the eye-tracking glasses or sitting at the mobile eye tracker, to explore conscious and unconscious processes at the same time.”

Professor Kate Bullen, Head of the School of Applied Social Sciences (SASS), said: “The addition of the new eye-tracker equipment greatly enhances the range of interdisciplinary research we are able to develop in SASS. I am delighted that there is so much interest in the new kit and we look forward to working to working with colleagues from across the university to maximise new research opportunities.”

Find out more about the research taking place at the Social Science Policy and Research Centre.