Project: “Eyetracker”
Venue: “Psychology” Show, Ontario Science Centre
Location: Toronto, Canada
Date: Summer, 1990
Client: Ontario Science Centre
Contributors: Matthew Bates in the employ of OSC, OSC design and
fabrication (housing)

Client’s Requirements:
In this exhibit the user is presented with an image chosen randomly from a database. While they looked at the image their eye movement would be monitored. After 10 seconds the way in which they looked at the image was replayed on the screen, marking the focus points with blue dots.

Fulfillment:
This exhibit was originally developed at the Exploratorium. We modified the program to work on new hardware and introduced mechanical innovations that eliminated several reflection problems and even made it possible for people wearing glasses to use the exhibit. During the prototyping it was found that the closeup image of the eyeball used in the tracking process was itself fascinating and in the final exhibit a dedicated monitor was installed to show it.

Interesting Features:
The playback results are fascinating and surprisingly consistent amongst many visitors.