Models of Tracking and Search Eye-Movement Behavior

Humans interact with visual displays and interfaces not by passively absorbing the information like a fixed camera, but rather by actively scanning the visual image, searching for areas with relevant information, and by following the motion of features of interest. The overall goal of this project is to develop and test computational models of human eye-movement control with particular emphasis on two types of eye movement behaviors: search saccades and smooth pursuit. The specific aim is to incorporate recently acquired empirical knowledge of how eye movements contribute to information gathering and of the relationship between the eye-movement behavior and the associated percept, into computational tools for the design of more effective visual displays and interfaces that are matched to human abilities and limitations. Most current models of visibility have focussed on the passive human visual ability to detect, discriminate, or identify a target in noise in carefully controlled laboratory conditions in which eye movements are suppressed. When human operators interact with a display in the real-world (e.g. air traffic controller), they move their eyes from one image location to another using rapid eye movements (saccades) that point the fovea, the retinal region of highest resolution, at a region of interest. This active search process greatly enhances human performance. Two majo