BEACH-Gaze: Supporting Descriptive and Predictive Gaze Analytics in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science

Abstract

Recent breakthroughs in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the emergence of large datasets have made the integration of eye tracking increasingly feasible not only in computing but also in many other disciplines to accelerate innovation and scientific discovery. These transformative changes often depend on intelligently analyzing and interpreting gaze data, which demand a substantial technical background. Overcoming these technical barriers has remained an obstacle to the broader adoption of eye tracking technologies in certain communities. In an effort to increase accessibility that potentially empowers a broader community of researchers and practitioners to leverage eye tracking, this paper presents an open-source software platform: Beach Environment for the Analytics of Human Gaze (BEACH-Gaze), designed to offer comprehensive descriptive and predictive analytical support. Firstly, BEACH-Gaze provides sequential gaze analytics through window segmentation in its data processing and analysis pipeline, which can be used to achieve simulations of real-time gaze-based systems. Secondly, it integrates a range of established machine learning models, allowing researchers from diverse disciplines to generate gaze-enabled predictions without advanced technical expertise. The overall goal is to simplify technical details and to aid the broader community interested in eye tracking research and applications in data interpretation, and to leverage knowledge gained from eye gaze in the development of machine intelligence. As such, we further demonstrate three use cases that apply descriptive and predictive gaze analytics to support individuals with autism spectrum disorder during technology-assisted exercises, to dynamically tailor visual cues for an individual user via physiologically adaptive visualizations, and to predict pilots’ performance in flight maneuvers to enhance aviation safety.