A Systematic Review of Visualization Techniques and Analysis Tools for Eye-Tracking in 3D Environments

This systematic literature review presents an update on developments in 3D visualization techniques and analysis tools for eye movement data in 3D environments. With the introduction of affordable and non-intrusive eye-tracking solutions to the mass market, access to users' gaze is now increasingly possible. As a result, the adoption of eye-tracking in virtual environments using head-mounted displays is expected to increase since the trend is to incorporate gaze tracking as part of new technical solutions. The systematic literature review presented in this paper was conducted using the Scopus database (using the period 2017 to 17th of May 2022), which after analysis, resulted in the inclusion of 15 recent publications with relevance in eye-tracking visualization techniques for 3D virtual scenes. First, this paper briefly describes the foundations of eye-tracking and traditional 2D visualization techniques. As background, we also list earlier 3D eye-tracking visualization techniques identified in a previous review. Next, the systematic literature review presents the method used to acquire the included papers and a description of these in terms of eye-tracking technology, observed stimuli, application context, and type of 3D gaze visualization techniques. We then discuss the overall findings, including opportunities, challenges, trends, and present ideas for future directions. Overall the results show that eye-tracking in immersive virtual environments is on the rise and that more research and developments are needed to create novel and improved technical solutions for 3D gaze analysis.