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How eye tracking works and why it matters
We break down how eye tracking technology actually works, from the sensors that detect eye position to the algorithms that interpret gaze behavior.
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What is eye tracking?
Eye tracking is a technology that measures where a person is looking and how their eyes move. Using sensors and light‑based tracking, eye trackers estimate gaze direction with high precision, providing objective insight into visual attention. Today, eye tracking is used across research, UX, healthcare, training, gaming, and assistive technology to better understand human behavior and decision‑making.
How eye tracking works
At its center, eye tracking technology measures where someone is looking by capturing gaze data. By using eye trackers with cameras to detect eye movements, eye tracking reveal a range of core signals including:
Fixations: when the eyes stop to focus.
Saccades: quick movements between fixations.
Blinks: temporary closing and reopening of the eyelids.
Pupillometry: measurement of pupil size and response.
Eye tracking converts core signals into a data stream that can expose areas of human behavior often expressed subconsciously like decision-making, fatigue, attention, memory and much more.
Types of eye trackers
Eye tracking is possible through a range of different sensor technologies:
In each case, cameras and illuminators are used together with our advanced algorithm to provide a highly accurate gaze point.
The applications of eye tracking
When we understand the behavioral insights eye tracking offers, the potential applications are vast.
Academic and behavioral research
Eye tracking helps researchers study cognitive processes like reading, attention, and problem-solving. This kind of data is useful in many scientific areas: child development, disease assessment, neurology, and psychological research.
Commercial applications
Eye tracking helps us understand focus and awareness, providing new perspectives into training, skills assessment, usability testing, marketing and advertising, packaging design, wayfinding, and more.
Integrations
Eye tracking helps devices read emotional states, energy levels, and interest, making them more adaptive to what we need in the moment. It can be integrated into assistive technology devices, reading apps, driver monitoring systems (DMS) and tools for assessing brain and vision function.
A glimpse into the future
At Tobii, we believe eye tracking is going to help build the technological ecosystem of the future.
We imagine a world where our devices understand us, responding to our passive behavior and subconscious signals. Where our vehicles are smart and reactive third-spaces that keep us safe and comfortable on the road. Where businesses are empowered to make the right decisions with deeper insights into consumer behavior and able to train effectively by understanding their employees. And where scientific researchers make more discoveries, more often by exploring how eye movements relate to behavior, learning development, disability, disease.
Dive deeper into eye tracking
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