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Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking is the ability of special devices to track the user's gaze direction and measure distinguishing eye features. Applications of this technol-ogy range from the support to disabled people to the integration of gaze input with ordinary input channels (such as those provided by keyboard and mouse). Moreover, data obtained from the recording of eye movements are very useful for usability studies and biometric applications.
The research activity of Marco Porta in the field of Eye Tracking has developed in the following areas:

  1. Implementation of gaze-based interfaces. In the context of the integration of eye communication with ordinary user interfaces, pointing errors have been faced by means of both automatic and "manual" techniques. As a support to disabled users, some solutions have been proposed for text entry, web surfing, playing music, and the use of ordinary "windows-based" operating environments.
  2. User behavior analysis for e-learning and "intelligent" e-learning systems. Research carried out in this area has considered the evaluation of learning (especially in multiple-choice tests), the analysis of the evolution of eye parameters in response to different kinds of stimuli, and the implementation of e-learning platforms able to monitor and guide the learning process by detecting potential situations in which the user is not correctly understanding something, is experiencing cognitive stress, or is getting tired.
  3. Gaze-based soft biometrics. The user's "eye behavior" while freely watching specific kinds of stimuli (e.g., face pictures or animated graphical objects) can be exploited for biometric purposes in both recognition and authentication processes. In addition, it can be used for forensic applications and for age and gender estimation.
  4. Information presentation analysis for different kinds of interfaces, such as image browsing and online newspapers.
  5. Semi-automation of usability evaluation of user interfaces, through a simplified analysis of quantitative test results.
  6. Study of eye behavior in different contexts, such as reading, captioning, image browsing, face recognition, car driving, and evaluation of historical violins.