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Updated: May 13, 2026
Video Movement Analysis Using Smartphones ViMAS: A Pilot Study
Published on: March 14, 2017
Association between smartphone glances during application-based navigation and pedestrian navigation performance: a
Suguru Shimokihara1,2,3, Takayuki Tabira4, Yuriko Ikeda4
1Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences, Nagasaki University, Sakamoto, Nagasaki, Japan.
Background:
The percentage of people owning smartphones is rapidly increasing due to the digitalization of modern society. Among the smartphone's features, route guidance using navigation applications establishes spontaneous and independent outdoor mobility, and can potentially support people's health. Despite some known concerns regarding smartphone use while walking, navigation performance and eye-tracking behavior while walking with navigation applications in real-world environments are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between gaze behavior, particularly glancing at smartphones, and navigation performance among adult users of navigation applications while walking.
Methods:
This cross-sectional experimental study involved 33 healthy adults aged 20 years and older (20-81 years, 66.7% female) not requiring assistance with walking or activities of daily living. A route navigation task (RNT) of approximately 1,300 m was performed in a real outdoor environment. The participants were required to complete the route as quickly as possible, following the instructions of the navigation application. Simultaneously, the fixation time, number of fixations, number of saccades, total saccade angle, and number of glances at the smartphone were recorded using a wearable eye-tracking device. After checking the distribution of the obtained outcomes and performing correlation analysis, a generalized linear model (GLM) was created to investigate the relationship between the number of glances at the smartphone and the participants' navigation performance and gaze behavior. To confirm the validity of the estimates for each GLM, a bootstrap sample of 2,000 iterations was used to evaluate the estimates.
Results:
Correlation analysis showed that the number of stops and route errors were moderately and positively correlated with the number of times participants glanced at their smartphones (P<0.05). In the original GLM, the number of stops and route errors showed a significant positive association with the number of glances at the smartphone (P<0.05). This significant positive relationship persisted even after examining the bootstrap sample.
Conclusions:
In healthy adults, frequent screen glances while walking with a navigation application may interfere with navigation performance. Establishing an alternative navigation system that does not rely on screen-checking may help pedestrians move more efficiently and safely.
