Assessing Levels of Attention using Low Cost Eye Tracking

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that low-cost mobile eye tracking can effectively measure user attention and cognitive effort in real-world settings, with potential applications in personalized smartphone interactions.

Contribution

The paper introduces a method to quantify attention and cognitive effort using low-cost mobile eye tracking in natural environments, extending lab-based techniques to real-world scenarios.

Findings

Pupil size correlates with alertness, orientation, and conflict resolution.

Differentiates sustained alertness from complex decision making in real-world settings.

Potential for adaptive smartphone interfaces based on attention levels.

Abstract

The emergence of mobile eye trackers embedded in next generation smartphones or VR displays will make it possible to trace not only what objects we look at but also the level of attention in a given situation. Exploring whether we can quantify the engagement of a user interacting with a laptop, we apply mobile eye tracking in an in-depth study over 2 weeks with nearly 10.000 observations to assess pupil size changes, related to attentional aspects of alertness, orientation and conflict resolution. Visually presenting conflicting cues and targets we hypothesize that it's feasible to measure the allocated effort when responding to confusing stimuli. Although such experiments are normally carried out in a lab, we are able to differentiate between sustained alertness and complex decision making even with low cost eye tracking "in the wild". From a quantified self perspective of individual behavioral adaptation, the correlations between the pupil size and the task dependent reaction time and error rates may longer term provide a foundation for modifying smartphone content and interaction to the users perceived level of attention.