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Across a wide variety of research environments, the recording of microsaccades and other fixational eye movements has provided insight and solutions into practical problems. Here we review the literature on fixational eye movements—especially microsaccades—in applied and ecologically-valid scenarios. Recent technical advances allow noninvasive fixational eye movement recordings in real-world contexts, while observers perform a variety of tasks. Thus, fixational eye movement measures have been obtained in a host of real-world scenarios, such as in connection with driver fatigue, vestibular sensory deprivation in astronauts, and elite athletic training, among others. Here we present the state of the art in the practical applications of fixational eye movement research, examine its potential future uses, and discuss the benefits of including microsaccade measures in existing eye movement detection technologies. Current evidence supports the inclusion of fixational eye movement measures in real-world contexts, as part of the development of new or improved oculomotor assessment tools. The real-world applications of fixational eye movement measurements will only grow larger and wider as affordable high-speed and high-spatial resolution eye trackers become increasingly prevalent.
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Microsaccades: Modeling, Analysis, and Synthesis
Investigation of microsaccades has garnered interest in recent years. Various issues have emerged, not the least of which includes modeling, analysis, interpretation, and synthesis of these subtle but increasingly important eye movements. In this symposium we bring together researchers interested in advancing the state-of-the-art pertaining to basic and applied investigation of microsaccades as well as of their synthesis. The symposium begins with a discussion of modelling and analysis of microsaccades (1). The link between microsaccades and oculomotor inhibition is then discussed suggesting microsaccades as measures for perceptual saliency and surprise (2). We then consider the suitability of microsaccades as a measure of cognitive load, in comparison with traditional pupillometric measures used for this purpose (3). We then move on to applied uses of microsaccades and their interpretation in studied behaviors (4,5). We end with a topic that may be quite novel to the ECEM audience, namely eye movement synthesis. This topic is concerned with the creation of artificial microsaccades for the purpose of rendering gaze, e.g., of virtual actors in gaming and film (6).
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- Award ID(s):
- 1748380
- PAR ID:
- 10098316
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- European Conference on Eye Movements
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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