Measuring Emotion and Attention by Analyzing Eye Properties

One important methodological problem in the study of emotion and attention within market research is the absence of fast, reliable, easy-to-use tools, which adds additional insight, is applicable on large sample sizes and practically possible to integrate into the methods used today. This paper introduces a new way of measuring emotional impact from advertisement and product design by analyzing subconscious reactions within the eyes. The technology is integrated in the analysis software Emotion Tool™, a diagnostic tool designed to measure immediate emotional responses on print advertisement, marketing material, design, packaging, magazine covers etc. The non-intrusive, non-verbal, psychophysiology measurement instrument measures the visual attention and emotional involvement to the advertisement and it determines if the emotion is of a pleasant or unpleasant character. Each emotional response is extracted from subtle dynamical psycho-physiological changes within the respondents’ eye via a camera based eye tracker