A long term research goal is to build predictive engineering tools that user interface designers and analysts can use to predict human performance in complex visual tasks. The immediate research goal is to conduct exploratory cognitive modeling based on both reaction time and eye movement data. The modeling will contribute to the science base necessary for the predictive modeling that will be at the core of such an analysis tool. The modeling also provides designers with a richer, more thorough understanding of how people coordinate their perceptual and motor processes while interacting with a visual layout.
Eye tracking will play an important role in understanding how people interact with displays. Eye tracking data may be of little use, however, if studied and analyzed in the absence of a cognitive theory or model that discusses and explains why a person would look here or there at a particular point in time in the context of pursuing a task. Eye tracking and cognitive modeling of visual tasks will become increasingly important to each other. Eye tracking data is needed to evaluate and refine cognitive models of visual tasks, and cognitive models are needed to make sense of eye tracking data.
Biography:
Anthony Hornof is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Oregon. His primary research interests are human-computer interaction, cognitive modeling, visual search, and eye tracking. He is currently funded by the Office of Naval Research. Professor Hornof received a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1999, and aA B.A. in Computer Science from Columbia University in 1988. Between college and graduate school, he worked for Deloitte and Touche, implementing technology solutions for New York businesses.