Reconstruction of eye movements during blinks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using symbolic sequence dynamics to reconstruct eye movements during blinks, significantly improving data completeness in reading studies, especially for populations with high blink rates.

Contribution

The paper presents a new reconstruction technique for eye movements during blinks, outperforming simpler interpolation methods and enabling more accurate reading behavior analysis.

Findings

Reconstruction method outperforms simple interpolation approaches.

Reconstructed data shows no significant deviation from typical eye movement patterns.

Method is particularly useful for populations with high blink rates.

Abstract

In eye movement research in reading, the amount of data plays a crucial role for the validation of results. A methodological problem for the analysis of the eye movement in reading are blinks, when readers close their eyes. Blinking rate increases with increasing reading time, resulting in high data losses, especially for older adults or reading impaired subjects. We present a method, based on the symbolic sequence dynamics of the eye movements, that reconstructs the horizontal position of the eyes while the reader blinks. The method makes use of an observed fact that the movements of the eyes before closing or after opening contain information about the eyes movements during blinks. Test results indicate that our reconstruction method is superior to methods that use simpler interpolation approaches. In addition, analyses of the reconstructed data show no significant deviation from the usual behavior observed in readers.