Glasses Offer 'Natural' Eyetracking

Eyetracking pioneer Tobii Technology has announced the launch of Tobii Glasses™, which the firm says look and feel like modern eyewear, allowing subjects to walk around freely collect eyetracking data in 'mobile, natural settings'.

Tobii suggests the glasses will enable researchers to capture user behaviour in a real-world environment - for example in stores, while using computers, trying out a new product of reading an advertisement. The glasses are said to be lightweight and do not have distracting cameras or mirrors in the field of view.

Clients receive data automatically aggregated via analysis tool Tobii Studio, removing the need for hours of manual coding and compiling of information and cutting costs, says Tobii, adding that the glasses are easy to use, require little training and can be calibrated quickly, either before or after research begins.

Tom Englund, EVP of Analysis Solutions, says the glasses are 'truly revolutionary' and 'open up entirely new possibilities for our customers to do research that previously has not been possible.' Englund says applications are 'limited only by the imagination' and would include 'learning about gaze in operating mobile devices, playing sports, attending live events or operating machinery'.

Amaury de Conde, SVP, Group Managing Director at Ipsos, one of the first organisations to test the glasses, comments: 'Our live study in a restaurant environment yielded unique observations linking early gaze behavior to purchases that could only have been possible with the use of this groundbreaking new Tobii technology.'

Tobii's products are widely used for measuring visibility and attention within the scientific community and in commercial market research and usability studies, as well as by people with disabilities as a means to communicate.

Founded in 2001, Tobii is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and has offices in the US, Germany, Norway, Japan and China. The Glasses can be seen 'in action' at www.tobiiglasses.com/marketresearch .