Eye tracking makes TV in Britain

Eye tracking technology has made the jump to television. In the United Kingdom reality show, Big Brother, SimpleUsability eye trackers made a big debut. The show throws a group of housemates together for a period of time to see who lasts the longest. Similar to other reality shows, people are evicted by vote and after the completion or failure of challenges. It was for one of these challenges that SimpleUsability’s eye tracking technology was used.

Contestants were equipped with the SimpleUsability wearable eye tracking unit. Each contestant had to look at the item they hoped to win on a giant screen for the duration of the task. Looking away meant failure, but it wasn’t so easy. Stimuli such as massive snakes and burlesque dancers were used to distract the contestants.

The eye tracker was a huge benefit to this kind of test. The human eye moves so quickly that live judges would be hard pressed to identify the exact moment a contestant looked away from the screen. Eye trackers can demonstrate this kind of accuracy, making the entire experience twice as exciting.

Though it may seem like a small thing, this TV debut has demonstrated just how far eye tracking has come. This was the first real-world eye tracking test in the UK, and it has shown just how unobtrusive the technology has become over the last few years.

Though this may have been only the first time, now that the doorway is open, maybe we’ll be seeing eye tracking on television in the near future.

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