EyeMap: a software system for visualizing and analyzing eye movement data in reading

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Computational Linguistics
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Eye movement data analysis is crucial for understanding reading processes.
• Existing software often lacks comprehensive features for diverse linguistic and technical requirements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce EyeMap, a novel, freely available software system for visualizing and analyzing eye movement data in reading research.
• To provide advanced functionalities beyond existing commercial and non-commercial systems.

Main Methods:

• Development of a platform-independent software system with advanced features for text presentation, interest area extraction, and data visualization.
• Implementation of binocular data analysis supporting various fonts and scripts (Unicode, proportional, non-proportional, spaced, unspaced).
• Creation of a device-independent XML data format for reading experiment data.

Main Results:

• EyeMap offers superior capabilities for text stimulus presentation, interest area extraction, and variable calculation.
• The system supports binocular data analysis across a wide range of writing systems, including English, German, Thai, Korean, and Chinese.
• An online version of EyeMap is available, facilitating web-based analysis and visualization of reading data.

Conclusions:

• EyeMap is a versatile and powerful tool for researchers studying reading across diverse languages and scripts.
• Its platform independence and online accessibility enhance its utility and potential for data sharing and corpus development.