Understanding Eye-Tracking Technology: A Beginner’s Guide

Adam Cellary
January 26, 2023

Eye-tracking technology is a method of measuring and analyzing the movement of a person’s eyes. This technology is used in a variety of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, marketing, and human-computer interaction. In this article, we will provide a beginner’s guide to understanding eye-tracking technology.

Understanding the Eye-Tracking Technology

Eye-tracking technology works by using a device, often mounted on a computer or other device, to track the person’s eye movement. The eye-tracking device captures images of the eyes and uses software to analyze eye positions and eye movement, including where the person is looking, how long they are looking, how they react to certain stimulus and how often they blink.

What Are the Main Types of Eye Trackers?

There are two main types of eye-tracking technology: remote and contact. Remote eye-tracking uses cameras and other sensors to track the movement of the eyes from a distance. Contact eye-tracking, on the other hand, uses eye tracking glasses or sensors that are in contact with the eyes, such as those found in virtual reality headsets.

How Can You Use Eye-Tracking Data?

Eye-tracking research has applications in many fields. There are many tracking devices that measure eye movements, including fixations and saccades. These tools have a wide range of real-world applications, from enhancing user experience in digital interfaces to aiding disabled users in navigating technology more effectively. 

One of the main uses of eye-tracking technology is in the field of psychology and neuroscience. Researchers use eye-tracking to study how the brain processes visual information, such as how we perceive and recognize objects and how we make decisions. 

In marketing, eye-tracking technology is used to study how consumers interact with advertisements, websites, package design and other marketing materials. Also, many of the world's biggest companies use eye-tracking in their market research. It allows them to plan marketing campaigns or PR strategy.

In human-computer interaction, eye-tracking technology is used to study how people interact with computer interfaces and to design more user-friendly interfaces. For example, eye-tracking can be used to determine which areas of a website or app are most used and which areas are ignored.

The Friendship Between Eye-Tracking and User Experience 

As you now know, eye-tracking is also used in research when it comes to user experience. By tracking people’s gaze and its direction towards certain areas of the screen, designers are able to create more intuitive online products, like apps, websites, or e-commerce. It’s the best research method for noticing which parts of the product are engaging or confusing for users.

If this interests you, check how the eye-tracking system works by yourself.

Usability testing with RealEye is all about bringing real people in to try your product. Then you can watch what they do with it! It’s a great chance to see firsthand how potential clients react, where exactly they focus their gaze, and what they really think about your creation. Whether you just have a first mockup or a ready-to-serve website, eye-tracking is always a good idea to start with.

It’s also easy to use. Now you can create an eye-tracking study in 3 simple steps and get results even in 5 minutes. Check on our use cases: https://www.realeye.io/use-cases 

Online Eye-tracking: Easy for Everyone, Everywhere

You already know a lot about theory, but what does eye-tracking look like in practice? Below you will find some of the most important points regarding the technical side of eye tracking.

  • You can provide gaze tracking experiments on laptops as well as on smartphones. You don't have to download any apps or install software. All you need is a mobile web browser, and you're good to go!
  • Webcam eye tracking works with any webcam, so you don't need any special equipment to get started.
  • The setup is really simple, and the calibration process lasts around 30 seconds. So don’t worry if you aren’t a techie. We’re sure you can handle all the processes. And if you don’t, our team will help you with all the issues. We’ve also prepared handy, multilingual instructions for all our users.
  • Eye-tracking software is designed to work even in low-lighting conditions. It uses advanced algorithms to enhance the images' quality, ensuring that every detail is captured and visible.

Discover What Your Gaze Tracking Report Reveals

Do you want to know what your research report may look like? Maybe you want to find out what insights you can actually get from it? We have some truly amazing results for you that can completely change the way you look at research and development of your product, website, or even the store shelf.

What will you find in your gaze tracking report?

  • In each report, you’ll find a heatmap showing areas of interest with highlighted user's point of gaze. You can filter the data by age, gender or tags, and check the results immediately. 
  • You can check the gaze point, gaze plot, or fixation plot for individual participants and replay gaze and fixation plots if you need to review them again. Now, you also can slow down the video and export it to your desktop to share it with your team.
  • For each study, we prepare quality statistics and users' success rates. The system grades every participant based on the sampling rate, data integrity, and percentage of gaze on the screen. This way, you can be sure you'll get the best quality data to analyze.
  • Once your participant completes the test, you can view the results immediately on the dashboard. To make it easier for you to analyze the results, you can use tags to describe the participants.
  • Now you can download whole study CSV file or use RealEye’s API and get all the results via HTTP protocol secured by TSLv2 (HTTPS).

If you want to learn more about RealEye’s report or functions, visit the site: https://www.realeye.io/features/online-webcam-eyetracking 


Overall, eye-tracking technology is a valuable tool for understanding and improving human behavior and interactions. Whether you are a researcher, marketer, or computer designer, understanding the basics of eye-tracking technology can help you gain insight into human behavior and improve your work.

In conclusion, this technology is a powerful tool for understanding human behavior and interactions. Eye-tracking is used in various fields such as psychology, neuroscience, marketing, human-computer interaction and assistive technology. Understanding the basics of eye-tracking technology can help you gain insight into human behavior and improve your work. With the advancement of technology, the use of eye-tracking will only increase and will be more accessible to people.

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