A tutorial: Analyzing eye and head movements in virtual reality

This tutorial provides instruction on how to use the eye tracking technology built into virtual reality (VR) headsets, emphasizing the analysis of head and eye movement data when an observer is situated in the center of an omnidirectional environment. We begin with a brief description of how VR eye movement research differs from previous forms of eye movement research, as well as identifying some outstanding gaps in the current literature. We then introduce the basic methodology used to collect VR eye movement data both in general and with regard to the specific data that we collected to illustrate different analytical approaches. We continue with an introduction of the foundational ideas regarding data analysis in VR, including frames of reference, how to map eye and head position, and event detection. In the next part, we introduce core head and eye data analyses focusing on determining where the head and eyes are directed. We then expand on what has been presented, introducing several novel spatial, spatio-temporal, and temporal head-eye data analysis techniques. We conclude with a reflection on what has been presented, and how the techniques introduced in this tutorial provide the scaffolding for extensions to more complex and dynamic VR environments.