Proceedings of the 2008 symposium on Eye tracking research & applications - ETRA '08

Abstract

ETRA 2008 is the fifth bi-ennial symposium in a series focused on all aspects of eye movement research across a wide range of disciplines. The goal of ETRA is to bring together computer scientists, engineers and behavioral scientists in support of a common vision of enhancing eye tracking research and applications. This year's themes included the following: •Advances in Eye-Tracking Technology: Eye-tracking systems, software, and algorithms, eye movement analysis techniques and predictive models. •Visual Attention and Eye Movement Control: Studies of eye movement guidance during natural stimuli and behaviors, driving, web surfing, usability studies. •Eye Tracking Applications: Gaze-contingent displays, attentive user interfaces, human computer interfaces, assistive technologies. •Special Theme: Usability and Ubiquity: Eye tracking has become a fairly popular though still expensive option in usability studies. Meanwhile, several approaches have recently been developed for inexpensive do-it-yourself (DIY) eye tracking systems. Webcam-based solutions for course-grained analysis are quite plausible on commonly available systems (e.g., Apple's MacBook Pro with built-in iSight). Submissions were invited that explored new methodological approaches, demonstrating significant improvement over existing ones. Results from usability perspectives as well as novel strategies for ubiquitous eye tracking deployment were also welcomed. Two categories of submissions were sought: Full Papers and Late-Breaking Results (LBR papers). Full papers conform to the ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings category 2 format and are a maximum length of eight pages. New for 2008, Late-Breaking Results conform to the ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings category 3 format ("upgraded" from category 4 in 2006). Late-Breaking Results consist of a 1-4 page short paper (extended abstract). Answering the Call For Participation, 44 papers were submitted by international authors working in diverse research areas. The final Proceedings contains 18 papers, selected by peer review (41% acceptance rate). The 18 full papers have been grouped into 6 generally related themes of 3 papers each. These groupings were determined after the paper selection process was completed. This year's paper selection process continued to strive for impartiality and rigor, requiring at least two reviews of each paper. All papers were reviewed by three reviewers, and a few were reviewed by four. The final paper selections were made by the program Co-Chairs following review rankings of all papers. Prior to this process, authors were encouraged to submit their work in final proceedings format and reviewers were instructed to consider each paper for publication as-is, with no changes required. Authors of accepted papers were, however, instructed to respond to the criticisms of their reviewers before submitting the final camera-ready copy for publication. Forty individuals, considered to possess expertise in the field of eye tracking, eye movement research, psychology, or human-computer interaction, were selected by the program Co-Chairs as paper reviewers. Paper reviews were assigned to reviewers following reviewers' self-assessment of reviewing competency/expertise based on previews of paper abstracts. Reviews of papers were prohibited from committee members where the review would present a conflict of interest. This year the four-page short papers were also peer-reviewed by reviewers selected by the general Co-Chair (serving as the interim LBR Chair). Each LBR submission was peer-reviewed by two reviewers. From the 44 original submissions, 22 papers were invited for re-submission as LBR papers (of which 18 accepted the invitation and 4 declined), 4 papers were rejected without an invitation to re-submit. In addition to the 18 invited papers, 20 more LBR submissions were received. From the 38 LBR submissions, the 18 invited papers were automatically accepted for poster presentations, 6 of the 20 new submissions were rejected, resulting in acceptance of 32 LBR short papers. Of these, 6 were selected for oral presentation in addition to the poster.