Eye movements during inspecting pictures of natural scenes for information to verify sentences

As eye tracking can be used to record moment-to-moment changes of eye movements as people inspect pictures of natural scenes and comprehend information, this paper attempts to use eye-movement technology to investigate how the order of presentation and the characteristics of information affect the semantic mismatch effect in the picture-sentence paradigm. A 3（syntax）×2（semantic relation） factorial design is adopted, with syntax and semantic relations as within-participant variables. The experiment finds that the semantic mismatch is most likely to increase cognitive loads as people have to spend more time, including first-pass time, regression path duration, and total fixation duration. Double negation does not significantly increase the processing difficulty of pictures and information. Experimental results show that people can extract the special syntactic strategy from long-term memory to process pictures and sentences with different semantic relations. It enables readers to comprehend double negation as affirmation. These results demonstrate that the constituent comparison model may not be a general model regarding other languages.

Identification of Information-Seeking Behaviors from Air Traffic Controllers′ Eye Movements

Air traffic controllers are the important parts of air traffic management system who are responsible for the safety and efficiency of the system.They make traffic management decisions based on information acquired from various sources.The understanding of their information seeking behaviors is still limited.We aim to identify controllers′ behavior through the examination of the correlations between controllers′eye movements and air traffic.Sixteen air traffic controllers were invited to participate real-time simulation experiments,during which the data of their eye ball movements and air traffic were recorded.Tweny-three air traffic complexity metrics and six eye movements metrics were calculated to examine their relationships.Two correlational methods,Pearson′s correlation and Spearman′s correlation,were tested between every eye-traffic pair of metrics.The results indicate that controllers′two kinds of information-seeking behaviors can be identified from their eye movements:Targets tracking,and confliction recognition.The study on controllers′ eye movements may contribute to the understanding of information-seeking mechanisms leading to the development of more intelligent automations in the future.

What Eye Movements Tell About Identifying Compound Words in Reading and Top-Down Effects in Reading Long Texts

Two lines of research on eye movements in reading are summarized. One line of research examines how adult readers identify compound words during reading. The other line of research deals with how a specific reading goal influences the way long expository texts are read. Both lines of research are conducted using Finnish as the source language. With respect to the first research question, it is demonstrated that compound words are recognized either holistically or via their components, depending on the length of the compound word. Readers begin to process whatever information is readily available in the foveal vision(i.e., either the whole-word form or the initial component). The second line of research demonstrates that(1)a specific reading goal is capable of exerting an early effect on readers’ eye fixation patterns,(2)time course analyses based on eye movement patterns can reveal interesting individual differences, and(3)working memory capacity is linked to the efficiency to strategically allocate attention as well as to encode information to and retrieve it from the long-term memory. It is concluded that the eye-tracking technique is an excellent research tool to tap into the workings of the human mind during the comprehension of written texts.

Passive eye movements induced by electromagnetic force(EMF) in rats

Accurate information on eye position in the orbit is available from visual feedback,efference copy of the oculomotor commands and proprioceptive signals from the extraocular muscles (EOM).Whereas visual feedback and oculomotor commands have been extensively studied,central processing of EOM proprioceptive signals remains to be elucidated.A challenge to the field is to develop an approach to induce passive eye movements without physically contacting the eyes.A novel method was developed to generate passive eye movements in rats.A small rare-earth magnet disk (0.7 mm diameter,0.5 mm thickness) was attached to the surface of a rat's eyeball.A metal rod (5 mm diameter) wrapped with an electromagnetic (EM) coil was placed near the magnet (8-15 mm).By passing currents to the EM coil,electromagnetic force (EMF) was generated and acted upon the magnet and induced passive eye movements.The EMF induced well-defined passive eye movements,whose directions were dependent on current polarity and amplitudes and peak velocities were dependent on current intensity and duration.Peak velocities of the EMF-induced eye movements were linearly related to amplitudes,exhibiting main sequence relationships similar to that of saccades in awake rats and eye movements induced by electrical microstimulation of the abducens nucleus in anesthetized rats.Histological examination showed that repetitive EMF stimulations did not appear to result in damages in the EOM fibers.These results validated the EMF approach as a novel tool to investigate EOM proprioceptive signals and their roles in visual localization and gaze control.

Experimental platform for moving double-camera system based on binocular vergence eye movements

A control model of binocular vergence eye movements is presented. The control model can reduce blind areas caused by the double cameras in motion platform. In order to validate the model performance, an experimental platform and its control system based on TMS320LF2407 are designed. The control system has its compacted configuration and high reliability. The simulation and experimental results show that the control system can realize binocular vergence movements. Compared with the conventional moving double cameras system, this new system can considerably reduce blind areas.

The Characteristic of Nurses’ Eye Movements during Observation of Patients with Disturbed Consciousness

Objective: The objective of this study was to clarify the characteristics of nurses’ eye movements during observation of patients with disturbed consciousness by comparing intuition ability, critical thinking, and clinical experience years. Methods: Participants were 19 nurses working on a neurosurgery ward in Japan and caring for patients with consciousness disturbance who were unable to speak. Ten novice nurses (24.8 ± 3.36 years old) and nine expert nurses (38.3 ± 5.77 years old) were compared. The observation scene, displayed on a computer screen, was a static image of a simulated patient in a resting state who had developed right putaminal hemorrhage. We showed the participants an information sheet about the simulated patient then used an eye tracking camera to analyze gaze points, gaze time, and gaze count during observation. The Kuroda Intrinsic Intuitive Ability Scale (KIIS) created by Kawahara and the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale created by Hirayama were used for measuring intrinsic intuition ability and critical thinking disposition. Results: There were no significant differences between observation time of novices (5.0 ± 2.01 minutes) and experts (5.4 ± 1.78 minutes), nor between their total gaze time and total count. The proportion of gazing at the monitor by novice nurses and gazing at the face and bed fences by expert nurses tended to be high. The KIIS general education score influenced the gaze time and gaze count during simulated patient observation. The KIIS logical thinking score affected the gaze count to the simulated patient’s face. Conclusion: There was no significant difference between the total gaze time and the total count of novices and experts. The KIIS score affected the gaze during observation of the simulated patient.

Eye Movements Provide Inhibitory Inputs to the Occipito-Temporal Region

Eye movements play an important role in attention and visual processing. However, the manner in which eye move-ments are involved in object processing is not clear. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of eye movements on object-processing areas in the occipito-temporal region. Eye movements are always accompanied by visual perception;therefore, the effects of eye movements on object-processing areas in which visual object information is sent via eye movements instead of via retinal inputs of visual images must be measured. For this purpose, response to an eye- drawing stimulation in subjects who drew pictures of faces or buildings by their moving eyes under closed-eye condi-tions was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional areas in the occipito-temporal region showed negative responses to the eye-drawing stimulation, and the pattern of negative activation maps in the region was almost the same as that of positive activation maps observed after visual image stimulation. Responses in cate-gory-selective area showed category dependency to the eye-drawing stimulation. This suggests that eye movements provide inhibitory inputs to the object-processing areas in the occipito-temporal region, and these inputs may modulate visual inputs to these areas coming through the retina in the visual perception process.

Sex differences in eye movements and neural oscillations during mental rotation in virtual reality

Virtual reality(VR)has been a promising tool for developing visuospatial tasks.Among visuospatial tasks,mental rotation tasks are widely used in the assessment of visuospatial ability.Males have a distinct advantage in mental rotation ability compared to females,yet it is generally produced by investigations based on two-dimensional(2D)images on a computer screen.Sex differences in mental rotation tasks with three-dimensional(3D)objects in VR were not fully investigated.It is unclear whether the male's advantages in 2D mental rotation tasks are weakened in 3D tasks.The aim of this study was to provide new insights into the understanding of sex differences in mental rotation tasks presented in VR.Here,we developed a VR mental rotation task(VR-MRT)using 3D objects presented by a head-mounted display(HMD)and used VR-based eye tracking and electroencephalography(EEG)to examine eye movements and neural oscillations for males and females.Our results showed that females preferred a piecemeal strategy compared to males,suggesting a significant sex difference in visual strategy.More importantly,we found no significant sex differences in alpha-band and beta-band oscillations related to rotation processes of VR-MRT.These findings indicated that sex differences in the VR-MRT were mainly attributed to the selection of visual strategy rather than the rotation processes.The study helps to comprehensively understand the dominant factors contributing to the sex differences in the VR-MRT.

A Study of Pharmacist-Patient Communication: Examining Optimal Distance and Angle Using an Eye-Tracking System

This study focuses on seating arrangement and interpersonal distance as important aspects of nonverbal communication and aims to elucidate the optimal distance and angle between pharmacist and patient through an analysis based on the subjective evaluation of the patient and the objective evaluation of eye movements. Seven female simulated patients and one male and one female pharmacist cooperated as patients and pharmacists, respectively. The medication teaching scenes were set up with three pharmacist placements (face-to-face at 50 cm and 70 cm, 90-degree at 70 cm) and three hospital rooms (0-degree, 45-degree, 90-degree). Pupil diameter, blink rate, saccades, and fixation rate of the patient at each of these locations were measured using a Tobii Pro Glass 2. The patient’s subjective evaluation at each placement was also investigated using the conversation scale, which assesses the optimal distance for conversation. The results for the pharmacy setting revealed that pupils were significantly more mydriatic at the 50 cm point than at the other points. The results for the hospital room setting showed the greatest mydriasis at the 0-degree point. The result of the 50 cm point for the pharmacy setting and the 0-degree point for the hospital room setting was similar to that of the subjective evaluation. When the likelihood of saccades occurrence in the hospital room setting was compared, saccades were found to be most likely to occur when medication instructions were given to patients at the 0-degree point. We believe that using pupil diameter for interpersonal distance, and saccades for angle will enable more accurate determinations of the optimal distance and angle between pharmacist and patient. The results of the present study suggest that the 70 cm face-to-face point in the pharmacy and the 45-degree point in the ward may be suitable for medication instruction.

Eye movements characteristics of Chinese dyslexic children in picture searching

Background Reading Chinese, a kind of ideogram, relies more on visual cognition. The visuospatial cognitive deficit of Chinese dyslexia is an interesting topic that has received much attention. The purpose of current research was to explore the visuopatial cognitive characteristics of Chinese dyslexic children by studying their eye movements via a picture searching test. Methods According to the diagnostic criteria defined by ICD-10, twenty-eight dyslexic children （mean age （10.12±1.42） years） were enrolled from the Clinic of Children Behavioral Disorder in the third affiliated hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. And 28 normally reading children （mean age （10.06±1.29） years）, 1：1 matched by age, sex, grade and family condition were chosen from an elementary school in Guangzhou as a control group. Four groups of pictures （cock, accident, canyon, meditate） from Picture Vocabulary Test were chosen as eye movement experiment targets. All the subjects carried out the picture searching task and their eye movement data were recorded by an Eyelink II High-Speed Eye Tracker. The duration time, average fixation duration, average saccade amplitude, fixation counts and saccade counts were compared between the two groups of children. Results The dyslexic children had longer total fixation duration and average fixation duration （F=-7.711, P 〈0.01; F=-4.520, P 〈0.05）, more fixation counts and saccade counts （F=-7.498, P 〈0.01; F=-11.040, P 〈0.01）, and a smaller average saccade amplitude （F=-29.743, P 〈0.01） compared with controls. But their performance in the picture vocabulary test was the same as those of the control group. The eye movement indexes were affected by the difficulty of the pictures and words, all eye movement indexes, except saccade amplitude, had a significant difference within groups （P 〈0.05）. Conclusions Chinese dyslexic children have abnormal eye movements in picture searching, applying slow fixations, more fixations and small and frequent saccades. Their abnormal eye movement mode reflects the poor ability and strategy of visual information processing.

Motion Control in Saccade and Smooth Pursuit for Bionic Eye Based on Three-dimensional Coordinates

Saccade and smooth pursuit are two important functions of human eye. In order to enable bionic eye to imitate the two functions, a control method that implements saccade and smooth pursuit based on the three-dimensional coordinates of target is proposed. An optimal observation position is defined for bionic eye based on three-dimensional coordinates. A kind of motion planning method with high accuracy is developed. The motion parameters of stepper motor consisting of angle acceleration and turning time are computed according to the position deviation, the target＇s angular velocity and the stepper motor＇s current angular velocity in motion planning. The motors are controlled with the motion parameters moving to given position with desired angular velocity in schedule time. The experimental results show that the bionic eye can move to optimal observation positions in 0.6 s from initial location and the accuracy of 3D coordinates is improved. In addition, the bionic eye can track a target within the error of less than 20 pixels based on three-dimensional coordinates. It is verified that saccade and smooth pursuit of bionic eye based on three-dimensional coordinates are feasible.

Identification of Eye Movements from Non-frontal Face Images for Eye-controlled Systems

The novel eye-based human-computer interaction(HCI) system aims to provide people, especially, disabled persons,a new way of communication with surroundings. It adopts a series of continual eye movements as input to perform simple control activities. Identification of eye movements is the crucial technology in these eye-based HCI systems. At present, researches on eye movement identification mainly focus on frontal face images. In fact, acquisition of non-frontal face images is more reasonable in real applications. In this paper, we discuss the identification process of eye movements from non-frontal face images. Firstly, the original head-shoulder images of 0?–±60?azimuths are sampled without any auxiliary light source. Secondly, the non-frontal face region is detected by using the Adaboost cascade classifiers. After that, we roughly extract eye windows by the integral projection function.Then, we propose a new method to calculate the x- y coordinates of the pupil center point by searching the minimal intensity value in the eye windows. According to the trajectory of the pupil center points, different eye movements(eye moving left, right, up or down)are successfully identified. A set of experiments is presented.

Exploration of Arabic reading, in terms of the vocalization of the text form by registering the eyes movements of pupils

The intrinsic factors such as the visual constraints, extrinsic such as biomechanics, interface such as the support: the writing, the linguistics, the typography, the sense of progress of the language, have their impact on the habit, and the fittest and particularly the efficiency in reading. We suspect that circuits and zones involved in horizontal orientation “right to the left” are not the same the other way around hanging the linguistic collection. Reading Arabic provided with a specific difference in vocalization proves to be a valuable model verification two major issues which arouse language perception: [lexical processing: is it instantaneous (visual memory) or delayed (memory-tampon)? ···]. And a comparison with other models of language detection mechanisms and brain areas mnemonics which is involved in making information. Results are significatively: children vocalized mode is best seen. It must extend the duration of the mode without vowels. In our opinion, our study is original, and we introduced what a valuable tool in the diagnosis of visual and cognitive strategy by the biotechnology technical based on variations in terms of reading. This opens a horizon of opportunity for the application of the method to the Arabic language to determine the differences in eye size reflecting the effects of task variables in reading and a comparative study of other languages.

Adaptive navigation assistance based on eye movement features in virtual reality

Background Navigation assistance is essential for users when roaming virtual reality scenes;however,the traditional navigation method requires users to manually request a map for viewing,which leads to low immersion and poor user experience.Methods To address this issue,we first collected data on who required navigation assistance in a virtual reality environment,including various eye movement features,such as gaze fixation,pupil size,and gaze angle.Subsequently,we used the boosting-based XGBoost algorithm to train a prediction model and finally used it to predict whether users require navigation assistance in a roaming task.Results After evaluating the performance of the model,the accuracy,precision,recall,and F1-score of our model reached approximately 95%.In addition,by applying the model to a virtual reality scene,an adaptive navigation assistance system based on the real-time eye movement data of the user was implemented.Conclusions Compared with traditional navigation assistance methods,our new adaptive navigation assistance method could enable the user to be more immersive and effective while roaming in a virtual reality(VR)environment.

Application of Eye Movement Analysis in Landscape Visual Quality Evaluation

The existing methods of landscape visual quality evaluation is mostly based on people's subjective feelings,and the objectivity and scientificity of evaluation results are insufficient.As an important means of experimental psychology,eye movement technology can show great advantages and potential in landscape visual quality evaluation.On the basis of combing and summarizing the relevant literature,based on the explanation of the technical principle of eye movement analysis,the application field,research content,technical methods and other aspects of eye movement analysis were reviewed.The application prospect of eye movement technology in landscape visual quality evaluation was explored to provide theoretical reference for the in-depth evaluation and research of landscape visual quality evaluation theory.

Eye Movement Modeling Examples as a Teaching Tool for Epidural Block

Introduction: Video examples with task demonstrations by experts, with the expert’s eye movements superimposed on the task, are known as “eye movement modeling examples” (EMME). We performed this study to evaluate if there were improvements in the performance of anesthesia novice trainees when executing the epidural technique after an EMME of epidural block procedure. Methods: We developed an eye movement modeling example (EMME) from eye tracking recordings made by experienced anesthesiologists with more than 20 years of experience. Forty-two PGY3 anesthesia trainees who had never previously performed an epidural block were randomized to receive (study group) or not receive (control group) the EMME video before their institutional training. All the trainees were evaluated every 10 epidural blocks until the end of the rotation period, by an independent, blinded observer using the Global Rating Scale for Epidural Anesthesia (GRS). Results: Trainees who received the EMME training exhibited more respect for the patient’s tissues (P Discussion: This is the first study that has used the EMME for a practical, clinical teaching purpose on real patients and that has used it as an aid in teaching epidural anesthesia. We demonstrated that inexperienced trainees who received the EMME training improved their proficiency at epidural blocks as compared to those who had no EMME training beforehand. Given this result, we welcome further studies to investigate the impact and the role of EMME on clinical teaching in the field of anesthesia.

Effect of Working Experience on Air Traffic Controller Eye Movement

Eye movement is an important indicator of information-seeking behavior and provides insight into cognitive strategies which are vital for decision-making.Various measures based on eye movements have been proposed to capture humans’ability to process information in a complex environment.The effectiveness of these measures has not yet been fully explored in the field of air traffic management.This paper presents a comparative study on eye-movement measures in air traffic controllers with different levels of working experience.Two commonly investigated oculomotor behaviors,fixation and saccades,together with gaze entropy,are examined.By comparing the statistical properties of the relevant metrics,it is shown that working experience has a notable effect on eye-movement patterns.Both fixation and saccades differ between qualified and novice controllers,with the former type of controller employing more efficient searching strategies.These findings are useful in enhancing the quality of controller training and contributing to an understanding of the information-seeking mechanisms humans use when executing complex tasks.

Future Directions for Eye Movement Research

It is argued that research on eye movements has now entered a fourth general era. Each of the four eras is briefly reviewed, and research findings related to eye movements during reading, scene perception, and visual search are discussed. Future directions for research in each of these areas and research in other domains involving eye movements are also discussed.