Usability of eye trackers as tools for designers of anastylosis

Abstract

Eye trackers are more and more often employed by scientists willing to learn more about how cultural heritage is perceived. However, designers very seldom make use of this technology, primarily perhaps due to its expensive and time-consuming nature. By choosing not to employ eye trackers they limit themselves to their own ideas and choices, at the same time forfeiting all the potential advantages of social consultations with non-professionals. One can easily imagine that their work and its effects would only benefit should a way be found to make eye-tracking tests more logistically and financially feasible or if another measure was established that would make it possible to learn the visual reactions of regular people. This paper focuses on perception of anastylosis. There are numerous types of damaged structures that get reassembled and multiple ways of doing that. While most doctrinal documents assert that the original object and the added elements should be easily distinguishable, the two solutions, most often chosen by designers is to make the cavity fillings differ in either texture or luminance from the original material. It is obvious that this results in a large range of solutions to choose from – from shallow indentations in the stone surface to deep ones, from stone just a shade brighter than the original to a distinct cream-white one. Since it is impossible to test all the possible variations using eye trackers, the authors of this paper tried a different approach. Eleven different virtual images were prepared of the same reassembled ionic column. They varied in the level of modifications applied to either the texture or the luminance of the cavity fillings. The entire set of eleven stimuli was then shown to a group of professionals in the field of architecture and/or conservation of monuments. They were asked to choose the best stimuli, that is those that facilitate the differentiation of the old and new parts of the structure by non-professionals. Thus, reduced set of three stimuli was then used in an eye-tracking tests involving over 100 participants. The eye-tracking data, combined with the results of previous research on the perception of anastylosis allowed the authors to formulate several conclusions. It turned out that the images selected by the professionals were far from those that would potentially stimulate and help non-professionals the most. However, the obtained information allowed formulating a few basic guidelines as to the use of differences in texture and luminance in anastylosis. It also made it possible to find a financially and logistically feasible alternative to the demanding eye-tracking tests when it comes to introducing social consultations into the designing process.