Tuesdays and Thursdays, Noon - 1:20 AM, 200 Deschutes
CRN: 31952 (for 410), 31964 (for 510), 4 Credits
Web Pages: http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/classes/10S/cis410eyetrack/
Prof. Anthony
Hornof, 356 Deschutes
Office Hours: Tues and Thurs 2 - 3 PM, or by appointment
hornof@cs.uoregon.edu
Eye tracking is a technique for using technology to determine where a person is looking on a computer screen. Eye tracking is typically accomplished with a video camera that focuses on a person's eyes. After that person looks at a series of calibration points on the computer screen, the computer can then figure out where a person is looking based on how the video image of the eyes change over time.
Eye tracking is a powerful tool for learning about how people interact with pretty much any visual content that can be presented on a computer screen. It is widely used to answer questions in psychology, such as how people process visual information, and in human-computer interaction, such as what is the best way to present search results in Google. Eye tracking can also be used to control the computer, and it has been used for a range of applications such as to enable people with severe disabilities to use a virtual keyboard on their computers screen by hitting keys with their eye movements. Eye tracking has also been used to a limited degree in the context of new media and interactive art. (The instructor of the course has conducted research projects in all of these domains.)
This course will introduce students to (a) the human visual system, visual perception, and eye movements; (b) eye tracking systems and applications in psychology, computer science, assistive technology (for people with disabilities to express themselves), and new media art; and (c) hands-on experience with running eye tracking studies and working with real-time, corneal-reflection eye trackers. A final project will require students to create and run an eye tracking experiment, an eye-controlled augmentative communication system, or an interactive new media composition. These projects can be completed in the instructor's eye tracking lab.
This class will bridge computer science with other disciplines by offering multiple different ways to interact with the same course content through homework assignments. The course content will emphasize the technology for tracking eye movements, the human psychological and physiological processes that can be monitored through eye tracking, and the kinds of unique questions that can be asked and answered with eye tracking experiments. But the course will also discuss opportunities to use eye tracking for assistive technology and for new media art.
Two of the challenges in running eye tracking experiments and in creating gaze-controlled computer interfaces include that (a) reliable eye tracking devices are quite expensive and hence sometimes difficult to gain access to and (b) there is limited software support for creating experiments or eye-controlled interfaces. One of the goals of the class is to substantially reduce these technology challenges for students.
For hardware, two LC Technologies Eyegaze Systems and one Tobii T60 Eye Tracker will be made available to students in the instructor's eye-controlled design studio in Deschutes Hall.
For software support, there are a number of environments for creating or modifying eye-controlled interfaces that will be made available to students. The Max/MSP/Jitter multimedia authoring environment is readily supported in our design studio and we have developed special software that connects the eye tracker to Max/MSP/Jitter. Adobe Flash has been demonstrated to work with our eye trackers, and this should be an appropriate environment in which students could develop new eye-controlled compositions. C and C++ application programming interfaces are available for experienced programmers. The Eyegaze Communication System is also readily available and can be easily though only slightly modified to customize opportunities for eye-controlled dialog.
Other software environments that will available to students include The Grid 2 and Viking Communicator, both of which are appropriate for assistive technology applications; and E-Prime with Extensions for Tobii, which is appropriate for running psychological experiments.
Though substantial efforts will be made to reduce the technology challenges, and to make it easier for students in different disciplines to work with eye tracking, eye tracking remains both an emerging technology and an inherently difficult human modality to work with. Hence, regardless of the technology challenges that can be reduced, students should expect to spend substantial time learning how to use and work the technology. It expected, however, that this hard work will result in students having a much deeper understanding of myriad creative opportunities for how advanced technology can serve human needs.
Duchowski, Andrew T., Eye Tracking Methodology: Theory & Practice, 2nd ed., Springer-Verlag, London, UK, 2007.
The course is open to a broad range of students, including but not limited to computer science, psychology, education, digital art, and music technology. Students should have completed appropriate 300-level coursework in their major. For example, digital arts students should have completed ARTD 378 Multimedia Design, and Psychology students should have completed PSY 303 Research Methods in Psychology. Students should also have completed or placed out of writing courses such as WR 121, 122, and 123. The online course description for CIS 410 states that the class is only open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences but this will be waived for students who have appropriate preparation for this course. Please email the instructor if you have any questions.
You are expected to read the assigned chapters and papers before class, take notes when you read, and come to class ready to discuss those chapters, with questions about what you read. You are expected to take notes on what you read, understand the material, and to look up words that you don't know in a reputable dictionary or in the index of the textbook.
All students are expected to attend all lectures, presentations, and group meetings with the professor, and to take written notes at all classes and meetings. Students are also expected to participate in class presentations, group meetings, and discussions. Your in-class participation may be supplemented by emailing the instructor with questions or comments, which he will try to incorporate into the next class. All students will also be expected to participate in a few in-class group presentations.
Come to class ready to engage the material and to interact face-to-face with the other human beings in the classroom. Please leave your 21st-Century distractions behind. Turn off your cell phones and pagers (do not just put them into "vibrate" mode). Cell phones ringing in class are inappropriate, discourteous and disruptive. Activities such as surfing the web or checking email during class is inappropriate and discourteous. Please practice your skill of focusing on the intellectual activity occurring in a physical room with real live people.
There may be one group project. If there is, the instructor will assign the teams after consultation with the students, the proposal for the project will be due in Week 5, and the final project will be due in the final week of class.
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. Both exams will be open-book take-home exams. The final exam will be due in the time slot allocated by the UO final exam schedule, but students may also submit the final exam earlier by putting a hard copy under the instructor's door. There will also be quizzes and in-class exercises to further supplement learning and assessment.
You are expected to schedule other events such as trips or job interviews to avoid conflicts with classes and exam dates. The only acceptable excuses for missing an exam on the scheduled date and time are documented medical situations, religious holidays (if cleared in advance), presenting papers at leading academic conferences (if cleared in advance), and documented personal emergencies.
Students have the responsibility to communicate with the instructor about any questions, concerns, or problems that they have during the course. These might relate to any aspect of the class including lectures, group dynamics, communication breakdowns, or anything. Please visit the instructor during his office hours or set up an appointment to discuss any problem or concerns.
Please contact the instructor with any questions and concerns at all regarding the class, following these guidelines:
Graduate students (enrolled in CIS 510) will have additional responsibilities including reading and responding to a few articles on eye tracking methodologies and applications. Graduate students will be held to a higher expectation of quality in projects and exams.
Grades will be determined based on your performance on a midterm, a final exam, and in-class quizzes; and based on your group's performance on group projects. Your final grade will be weighted as follows:
Final Project: 40%
Final Project Presentation: 10%
Midterm: 20%
Final Exam: 20%
Class Participation and Quizzes: 10%
Grades for the course will be determined on the following scale:
90-100% = A
80-89% = B
70-79% = C
60-69% = D
59 and below = F
Assignments submitted late will be subjected to a full letter grade penalty. Assignments will not be accepted more than two calendar days past the due date. Exceptions will only be considered if the request is submitted before the due date.
Any grading discrepancies (such as a miscounting of points on an assignment) must be resolved within a week after the assignment is returned to the student.
Projects will be assessed against a set of evaluation criteria that will be made available with each project. Read the criteria carefully because they reflect the aspects of the projects that are important given the pedagogical goals of the class.
While much in the arts and sciences can be evaluated objectively (such as whether a poem is recited accurately, or whether a computer program will compile and produce a specified output), much of the material covered in this class will be concepts, ideas, terminology, conventions, and practices that cannot be defined in pure objective language such as that of a string of text, or a computer program. Exams, quizzes, and projects are graded based on the instructor's subjective assessment of the accuracy and completeness of the answers and materials provided by the students. The instructor will apply an understanding of the material that he has established based on first-hand experience winning almost $2 million in funding from federal agencies to conduct a wide range of eye tracking research projects, publishing papers on these eye tracking projects in top journals and conferences, spending extensive time working and interacting with children with severe motor impairments, and performing eye-controlled new media art at a leading conference on new interfaces for musical expression.
Projects will be evaluated in part based on the instructor's subjective assessment of the quality of the written materials submitted. A modern skilled technology expert must be able to communicate his or her ideas clearly and concisely. Good writing occurs on three levels:
If you have any doubts about the quality of your writing, work with your project collaborators to critique each other's drafts. Also, take drafts to the drop-in writing lab at the Teaching and Learning Center in the basement of the PLC, open Monday - Friday from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
Modern writing standards advocate the use of inclusive language, and you should follow this standard. For example, if you are referring to a single anonymous person, you should write "he or she," "the user," or "the programmer," but not just "he." Also, please refer to women as "women" and not "girls" or "ladies".
People with disabilities should be first recognized as people, and then by their distinguishing characteristic. For example, "people with disabilities" is preferred over "disabled people".
The modern technology workplace is diverse, international, and intercultural. This course welcomes and values these differences as an opportunity to increase our awareness of the contemporary global society, how to work better in groups, and how to build better computer systems.
If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, during the first two weeks of class please (a) ask the counselor for students with disabilities send the instructor a letter verifying your disability and (b) arrange to meet with the instructor to discuss your needs.
You may not make audio or visual recordings of the class without explicit permission from the instructor.
Students who are found to have committed an academically dishonest act in this course will receive an F for the course.
Anemically honesty includes the following. You should do all of the following:
Academic dishonesty includes the following. You should not do any of the following:
All evidence of academic dishonesty will be rigorously pursued consistent with the University of Oregon Faculty Guide for Addressing Academic Misconduct.
This class is based largely on the class CPSC 412/612 Eye Tracking Methodology and Applications that is developed and taught by Dr. Andrew Duchowski at Clemson University. Dr. Duchowski's course and eye tracking lab were developed with support from the National Science Foundation. Some of the course materials used here may be directly copied from Dr. Duchowski's course materials. We are grateful to Dr. Duchowski for sharing his course materials with us.
A.Hornof 2/24/10