Computers have come a long way since their early days as clunky machines that required you to type in commands to get them to do anything. Nowadays, technology has evolved to the point where computers can understand us as easily as we can understand each other. With the rise of voice technology, augmented and virtual reality, and eye-tracking, we're learning to connect and communicate with each other in ways we never thought possible. While voice and augmented/virtual reality technology are exciting developments in their own right, today we're going to focus on eye-tracking technology and how it's set to revolutionize the way we work in the future.
What is eye-tracking?
Eye-tracking is a sensor technology which enables an electronic device to measure a person’s point of gaze. The process can detect the focus of the user and can offer unique insights into human behaviour as well as giving invaluable assistive support for those with physical disabilities. The technology has been around for some time and is fast evolving in the number of innovative uses it brings. It is currently deployed in a range of areas including psychology, marketing, product design, rehabilitative and assistive applications and behavioural research.
It’s potential to help us innovate training programmes is truly exciting. Let’s look at just a few of the ways eye-tracking could shape how we work in the future.
Training
As a technique, blended learning has grown as more trainers reap the benefits of combining traditional techniques with new methods such as gamification and mixed reality. Apart from the time and money saved as training times can be quicker, the speed and depth of knowledge retained in immersive learning far outperform traditional approaches. Eye-tracking technology is already widely used in driver, pilot, shipping, sport, air traffic control and emergency response services training.
"Eye-tracking technology offers a new dimension in immersive training and potentially promises to make future training programmes significantly more engaging than traditional methods."
Safer, faster logistics
2020 forced the world to change how it did almost everything - especially how we shop. With more of our shopping now done online, warehouses and logistics teams all over the world are busier than ever. Demand is high and so is the volume of work. In the rush to get products out the door and to customers as fast as possible, mistakes can happen. Wearable eye tracking analysis allows logistics teams to optimize their processes by enabling team leaders to see how employees engage with each system, machine and process.
By recording the environment where an employee carries out a task we are able to record the employee’s perspective and understand how he or she completes that task. These insights reveal the key risks and underlying causes of human errors in these environments and help team leaders to develop strategies for preventing future accidents.
Research
Eye-tracking is proving an invaluable tool in academic and market research. It is one of the most efficient techniques for capturing subconscious and objective data and has been applied in a wide range of academic research and used by leading companies in FMCG, retail, online services and advertising just to name a few.
Data and analytics will continue to drive the way most businesses of the future are run; and understanding how consumers view, process and respond to messaging, retail environments, and various media channels and devices will be more important than ever. As eye-tracking allows you to see things from a range of perspectives of consumers, it gives a deeper level of insight on what drives how people process and act on information in their environment.
As you can see, the way we do things is changing and will continue to evolve in the coming years. The application of eye-tracking technology is set to change the types of data that can be gathered and these new insights are set to make workplaces more diverse, creative, efficient, productive and potentially safer.
