AI Eye Tracking Technology – What It is And How It Works

Eye tracking technology uses advanced algorithms to monitor and analyze the movement of an individual’s eyes, typically through a camera or sensor. This technology can pinpoint where a person is looking, how long their gaze lingers on a particular spot, and even infer their interests based on eye movements. Eye tracking is utilized in various fields, including marketing research, user experience (UX) design, and gaming.

There are several types of eye tracking technology:

• Remote Eye Tracking: This method employs a camera to track eye movements from a distance, making it less intrusive and more comfortable for the user.

• Head-Mounted Eye Tracking: This approach uses a device mounted on the head to closely monitor eye movements, providing highly accurate data.

• Mobile Eye Tracking: Utilizing mobile devices like smartphones or tablets, this type of eye tracking offers flexibility and convenience for on-the-go analysis.

Eye tracking technology has numerous applications:

• Marketing Research: By understanding how individuals respond to different marketing stimuli, such as advertisements or product packaging, companies can optimize their strategies.

• UX Design: Eye tracking helps designers understand how users interact with digital products, leading to more intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.

• Gaming: Eye tracking can create more immersive gaming experiences, allowing players to control the game with their eyes and enhancing overall engagement.

Getting audiences to pay attention is a challenge for any business. Research varies, but most findings suggest you have about eight seconds to engage with a customer, and even that veers on the generous side. Some cite the number closer to two seconds. Essentially, it means that brands have a short window to sell their products or services, so any help is most welcome.

Eye-tracking technology and AI are revolutionizing the way businesses operate and interact with customers. AI tools enhance video production and accessibility features by improving video quality, such as correcting eye contact and background noise, and enabling individuals with disabilities to engage in artistic expression. Consider the recent launch of ChatGPT and the impact this has had on industries worldwide. Indeed, Eye-tracking technology has emerged as a powerful tool that helps brands better understand consumer behavior by tracking what people follow with their eyes.

This technology offers valuable insights that can help companies optimize their marketing efforts and drive customer acquisition. There's plenty of excitement around eye tracking and its potential to help with commercial applications, but what is it, and how does it work? In this article, you'll explore how you can leverage eye-tracking technology as well as the role of AI in customer acquisition.  

Eye contact correction is a significant application of eye tracking technology, designed to correct subtle eye movements and create the illusion of maintaining eye contact with the camera. This is particularly valuable in video production, where maintaining eye contact is crucial for creating a professional and engaging presentation.

Eye contact correction can be achieved through various techniques:

• AI-Powered Eye Contact Correction: Leveraging artificial intelligence, this method analyzes eye movements and automatically adjusts them to maintain consistent eye contact.

• Manual Eye Contact Correction: This traditional approach involves manually editing video footage to correct for any deviations in eye contact.

The potential applications of eye contact correction are vast:

• Video Production: Enhancing the professionalism and engagement of videos by ensuring consistent eye contact with the audience.

• Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): Creating more immersive experiences by maintaining eye contact within virtual environments.

• Gaming: Adding realism and engagement to gaming experiences by ensuring characters maintain eye contact with players.

Brands, in particular, can benefit from eye-tracking technology. It helps companies determine how consumers react to products, advertisements, billboards, and product marketing – essentially, anything designed to grab a person’s attention.

Tech companies are significantly advancing AI technologies, particularly in eye tracking. Major players like Meta and Google are acquiring eye-tracking companies to enhance their virtual reality experiences and improve consumer insight through predictive algorithms.

Looking at an advert for example. The creators of that ad – whether a video or static image – can use eye-tracking software to see how a viewer watches it and learn from their unconscious decision-making process. By doing so, marketers can understand where the viewers’ interests lie, what they overlook, and how they respond to different stimuli in the ad.

Eye tracking tech is usually mentioned with the following:

• The measurement of blinking patterns

• Identifying what someone looks at or ignores

• Pupil reaction when presented with visual stimulation

• Human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence

Can eye-tracking technology help brands understand what makes customers tick, enabling them to be smarter about how they market products? Here are some advantages and disadvantages of eye-tracking technology.

An AI tool can create accessible art generation solutions for individuals with restricted movement, such as those living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

Artificial intelligence has a significant role to play in making eye-tracking technology a more seamless process. It reduces the need for costly hardware and cuts down the time it takes to use eye-tracking technology, allowing for detailed analysis and dynamic data visualizations so brands can see how people react to their advertising.

Eye gaze technology facilitates natural interactions and enhances security features, especially in mobile and tablet technologies.

For instance, AI will code and tag content used in any given experiment, which saves time and costs for companies. AI’s power and ability to learn also improve data analysis times while making the information more reliable. It does this through biological bottom-up processing to understand visual information based on cues, such as orientation, color, texture, scale, and contrast.

Eye-tracking technology is complex. While it can be used in marketing research, its complexity has, until now, often stopped its adoption on a larger scale. Many of its previous issues came from the lack of AI in current eye-tracking technology.

Eye tracking can be used to observe and analyze what users focus on during their interactions with a screen, providing valuable insights into user behavior and preferences.

Subsequently, market researchers using the software didn’t have a seamless route to their desired results. For instance, they needed to implement eye-tracking hardware for experiments and license companies to manually check the results. Using eye-tracking technology can be both time-consuming and costly.

However, Dragonfly AI is now making it more accessible, combining eye-tracking technology with AI to give market researchers seamless access to the tech.

Research and development (R&D) play a crucial role in advancing eye tracking technology. R&D efforts focus on developing new technologies and techniques, as well as improving existing ones to enhance accuracy and usability.

Current R&D trends in eye tracking technology include:

• Advanced AI-Powered Eye Tracking: Developing sophisticated AI algorithms that can more accurately track eye movements, leading to better data and insights.

• Integration with Other Technologies: Combining eye tracking with VR, AR, and other emerging technologies to create more comprehensive and immersive experiences.

• Development of New Eye Tracking Devices: Innovating new devices, such as wearable or mobile eye tracking solutions, to expand the accessibility and application of eye tracking technology.

R&D in eye tracking technology has numerous potential applications:

• Improved Marketing Research: Leading to more accurate and reliable insights into consumer behavior.

• Enhanced UX Design: Resulting in more effective and engaging digital products.

• Immersive Gaming Experiences: Creating more realistic and engaging gaming environments.

Future of Eye Tracking