Mobile eye tracking captures egocentric vision and is well-suited for naturalistic studies. However, its data is noisy, especially when acquired outdoor with multiple participants over several sessions. Area of interest analysis on moving targets is difficult because A) camera and objects move nonlinearly and may disappear/reappear from the scene; and B) off-the-shelf analysis tools are limited to linearly moving objects. As a result, researchers resort to time-consuming manual annotation, which limits the use of mobile eye tracking in naturalistic studies. We introduce a method based on a fine-tuned Vision Transformer (ViT) model for classifying frames with overlaying gaze markers. After fine-tuning a model on a manually labelled training set made of 1.98% (=7845 frames) of our entire data for three epochs, our model reached 99.34% accuracy as evaluated on hold-out data. We used the method to quantify participants’ dwell time on a tablet during the outdoor user test of a mobile augmented reality application for biodiversity education. We discuss the benefits and limitations of our approach and its potential to be applied to other contexts.

Background: Automated eye tracking data correction algorithms such as Dynamic-Time Warp always made a trade-off between the ability to handle regressions (jumps back) and distortions (fixation drift). At the same time, eye movement in code reading is characterized by non-linearity and regressions. Objective: In this paper, we present a family of hybrid algorithms that aim to handle both regressions and distortions with high accuracy. Method: Through simulations with synthetic data, we replicate known eye movement phenomena to assess our algorithms against Warp algorithm as a baseline. Furthermore, we utilize two real datasets to evaluate the algorithms in correcting data from reading source code and see if the proposed algorithms generalize to correcting data from reading natural language text. Results: Our results demonstrate that most proposed algorithms match or outperform baseline Warp in correcting both synthetic and real data. Also, we show the prevalence of regressions in reading source code. Conclusion: Our results highlight our hybrid algorithms as an improvement to Dynamic-Time Warp in handling regressions.

Objectives To find out the prevalence rate of pre-myopia among primary school students in the Mianyang Science City Area, analyze its related risk factors, and thus provide a reference for local authorities to formulate policies on the prevention and control of myopia for primary school students. Methods From September to October 2021, Cluster sampling was adopted by our research group to obtain the vision levels of primary school students employing a diopter test in the Science City Area. In addition, questionnaires were distributed to help us find the risk factors associated with pre-myopia. Through the statistical analysis, we identify the main risk factors for pre-myopia and propose appropriate interventions. Results The prevalence rate of pre-myopia among primary school students in the Science City Area was 45.27% (1020/2253), of which 43.82% were boys and 46.92% were girls, with no statistically significant difference in the prevalence rate of myopia between boys and girls (2 =2.171, P=0.141). The results of the linear trend test showed that the prevalence rate of pre-myopia tends to decrease with increasing age (Z=296.521, P=0.000). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the main risk factors for pre-myopia were having at least one parent with myopia, spending less than 2 hours a day outdoors, using the eyes continuously for more than 1 hour, looking at electronic screens for more than 2 hours, and having an improper reading and writing posture. Conclusion The Science City Area has a high prevalence rate of pre-myopia among primary school students. It is proposed that students, schools, families, and local authorities work together to increase the time spent outdoors, reduce digital screens and develop scientific use of eye habits.

This study reports on several specific neurocognitive processes and eye-tracking predictors of reading outcomes for a sample of children with Developmental Dyslexia (DD) and At-tention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder - inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) compared to typical readers. Participants included 19 typical readers, 21 children diagnosed with ADHD-I and 19 children with DD. All participants were attending 4th grade and had a mean age of 9.08 years. The psycholinguistic profile of each group was assessed using a battery of neuropsy-chological and linguistic tests. Participants were submitted to a silent reading task with lex-ical manipulation of the text. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the predictive capability of developing dyslexia or ADHD-I based on the following measures: (a) a linguistic model that included measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and reading fluency and accuracy; (b) a cognitive neuropsychological model that included measures of memory, attention, visual processes, and cognitive or intellectual functioning, and (c) an additive model of lexical word properties with manipulation of word-frequency and word-length effects through eye-tracking. The additive model in conjunction with the neuropsychological model classification improved the prediction of who develops dyslexia or ADHD-I having as baseline normal readers. Several of the neuropsychological and eye-tracking variables have power to predict the degree of reading outcomes in children with learning disabilities.

Prior research has shown that sighting eye dominance is a dynamic behavior and dependent on horizontal viewing angle. Virtual reality (VR) offers high flexibility and control for studying eye movement and human behavior, yet eye dominance has not been given significant attention within this domain. In this work, we replicate Khan and Crawford’s (2001) original study in VR to confirm their findings within this specific context. Additionally, this study extends its scope to study alignment with objects presented at greater depth in the visual field. Our results align with previous results, remaining consistent when targets are presented at greater distances in the virtual scene. Using greater target distances presents opportunities to investigate alignment with objects at varying depths, providing greater flexibility for the design of methods that infer eye dominance from interaction in VR.

Although Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 infection (SARS-CoV-2) is primarily recognized as a respiratory disease, mounting evidence suggests that it may lead to neurological and cognitive impairments. The current study used three eye-tracking tasks (free-viewing, fixation, and smooth pursuit) to assess the oculomotor functions of mild infected cases over six months with symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected volunteers. Fifty symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected, and 24 self-reported healthy controls completed the eye-tracking tasks in an initial assessment. Then, 45, and 40 symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected completed the tasks at 2- and 6-months post-infection, respectively. In the initial assessment, symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected exhibited impairments in diverse eye movement metrics. Over the six months following infection, the infected reported overall improvement in health condition, except for self-perceived mental health. The eye movement patterns in the free-viewing task shifted toward a more focal processing mode and there was no significant improvement in fixation stability among the infected. A linear discriminant analysis shows that eye movement metrics could differentiate the infected from healthy controls with an accuracy of approximately 62%, even 6 months post-infection. These findings suggest that symptomatic SARSCoV- 2 infection may result in persistent impairments in oculomotor functions, and the employment of eye-tracking technology can offer valuable insights into both the immediate and long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Future studies should employ a more balanced research design and leverage advanced machine-learning methods to comprehensively investigate the impact of SARSCoV- 2 infection on oculomotor functions.

The motion of rotation, which served as a dynamic symbol within human-computer interfaces, has garnered extensive attention in interface and graphic design. This study aimed to establish speed benchmarks for interface design by exploring visual system preferences for the perception of both simple and complex rotating icons within the velocity range of 5-1800 degrees per second. The research conducted two experiments with 12 participants to examine the observers' just noticeable difference in speed (JNDS) and perceived speed for rotational icons. Experiment one measured the JNDS over eight-speed levels using a constant stimulus method, achieving a range of 14.9-29%. Building on this, experiment two proposed a sequence of speeds within the given range and used a rating scale method to assess observers ' subjective perception of the speed series' rapidity. The findings indicated that speed increases impacted the ability to differentiate between speeds; key points for categorizing low, medium, and high speeds were identified at 10, 180, and 720 degrees/s, respectively. Shape complexity was found to modulate the visual system's perception of actual speed, such that at rotation speeds above 180 degrees/s, complex icons appeared to rotate faster than simpler ones. Most importantly, the study applied quantitative methods and metrology to interface design, offering a more scientific approach to the design workflow.

This study examines the process of reading polycode advertising posters, focusing in particular on the effect of a pun in the headline. The pun, or a sequence of lexical items that can be perceived as ambiguous, is contained in the headline and different meanings of this sequence are supported by the picture and text. The results of the preliminary experiment showed that advertisements with puns are rated as more attractive, original, effective and positive compared to advertisements without puns. We hypothesized that puns in the headlines increase cognitive effort in processing posters, leading to higher evaluations. The main experiment tested this and examined differences in eye movement when reading posters with and without puns. Fifty-five Russian participants viewed advertisements while their eye movements were recorded. Our results showed no fundamental differences in the general pattern of viewing advertisement posters with and without puns. We found that readers start to perceive polycode advertisements from the text and spend more time reading the text than looking at an image. These findings shed light on how attention is distributed between verbal and non-verbal components of polycode texts, and which type of poster is more effective for information retrieval at different processing levels.