Eye Movements

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury,

School of Computing and Electrical Engineering,

IIT Mandi, India
Email: src@iitmandi.ac.in

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Eye Anatomy

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

How do you move your eyes?

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

Eye Muscles associated with Eye Movements

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Eye Movements

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Types of Eye Movement
Fixations:
• The eye is almost motionless, for example, while
reading a single, short word.
• The information from the scene is almost entirely
acquired during fixation.
• Duration varies from 100-1000 ms, typically between
200-600 ms.
• Typical fixation frequency is about 3 Hz.
• Fixations are interspersed with saccades.

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Types of Eye Movement
Saccades:
• Quick “jumps” that connect fixations
• Duration is typically between 30 and 120 ms
• Very fast (up to 700 degrees/second)
• Saccades are ballistic, i.e., the target of a saccade
cannot be changed during the movement.
• Vision is suppressed during saccades to allow stable
perception of surroundings.
• Saccades are used to move the fovea to the next
object/region of interest.

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Types of Eye Movement
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements:
• Smooth movement of the eyes for visually tracking a
moving object
• Cannot be performed in static scenes (fixation/saccade
behavior instead)

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Types of Eye Movement
Torsional Eye Movements:
• Rotation of the eye around the viewing axis
• Stabilization of visual scene by compensating body
rotation (up to about 15 degrees)

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Types of Eye Movement
Vergence Eye Movements:
• Slow, smooth movements changing the vergence angle
(the angle between the two viewing axes)
• Used for changing gaze from a near to a far object or
vice versa
• Can take up to one second
• Execution is often interrupted if no thorough
inspection of the object is required.

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Types of Eye Movement
Tremor:
• Fast, low-amplitude (seconds of arc) eye-movement
“jitter”
• Improves the perception of high spatial frequencies
• Prevents the fading of static images during fixations

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

How to Measure Eye Movements
Mirror on Eyeball
• Used in first eye tracking experiments (Yarbus in
1960’s)
• Suction cup attaches mirror to eyeball
• Light beam is directed at mirror and reflected onto
photo sensitive paper
• Good spatial resolution but no temporal
information
• Unpleasant for the subject

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 How to Measure Eye Movements
Electrooculogram (EOG)
• Skin electrodes around the eyes
measure potential differences
• Wide range -- poor accuracy
• Better for relative than absolute
eye movements
• Mainly used in neurological
diagnosis

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

How to Measure Eye Movements
Purkinje Eye Tracker
• Laser is aimed at the eye.
• Laser light is reflected by
cornea and lens
• Pattern of reflected light is
received by an array of light-
sensitive elements.
• Very precise
• Also measures lens
accomodation
• No head movements

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 How to Measure Eye Movements
EyeLink II System:
• Binocular
• Head-movement
compensation (head
camera looking at IR
markers at monitor)
• Temporal resolution 500
Hz
• Spatial precision about 0.5
to 1 degree
• Gaze-position data
available in real-time

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

How to Measure Eye Movements

EyeLink II System Configuration

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Why Eye-Movement Research?
About eye movements and visual attention:
• Usually, saccades follow shifts of attention to provide
high acuity at the attended position.
• It is possible to look at an object without paying
attention to it (staring).
• It is possible to shift attention without eye movement
(covert shifts of attention).
• It is impossible to perform a saccade while not
shifting attention.
• During specific, natural tasks it is reasonable to
assume that saccades follow shifts of attention.
Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI
 Why Eye-Movement Research?
The investigation of visual attention, in turn, is at the
core of cognitive science.
• Studying visual attention yields insight into
general attentional mechanisms.
• It can provide information on a person’s
stream of conscious and unconscious
processing while solving a task.
• Attention is closely linked to the concept of
consciousness.
• Attentional mechanisms could improve
artificial vision systems.
Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI
Eye-Movement Studies

Eye movements while watching a girl’s face

(early study by Yarbus, 1967)

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Eye-Movement Studies
Eye movements as
indicators of cognitive
processes (Yarbus):
• trace 1: examine at will
• trace 2: estimate wealth
• trace 3: estimate ages
• trace 4: guess previous activity
• trace 5: remember clothing
• trace 6: remember position
• trace 7: time since last visit

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI

 Thank You

Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury SCEE, IIT MANDI