Computer scientists from the Brown University in the U.S. have successfully developed a new software that can transform ordinary webcams into eye-trackers.

Called WebGazer, the software is said to enable webcams to track and measure the movements of the eyes of website visitors and to determine where on a webpage the visitors or users are looking.

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According to the scientists, the software is very useful in web development and website analytics. With a visitor's permission, it can allow developers to easily monitor which part of their webpages - such as content - is attracting a visitor's attention. It can also be integrated into any website by simply adding a "few lines of code", they said. The code is currently available free of charge at http://webgazer.cs.brown.edu/.

"We see this as a democratization of eye-tracking," said Alexandra Papoutsaki, a graduate student from the Brown University who was responsible for leading the development of WebGazer. "Anyone can add WebGazer to their site and get a much richer set of analytics compared to just tracking clicks or cursor movements."

"We're using the webcams that are already integrated in users' computers, which eliminates the cost factor," Papoutsaki added. "And it's more naturalistic in the sense that we observe people in the real environment instead of in a lab setting." The Brown University computer scientists are expected to showcase WebGazer at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) which will take place in the city of New York from July 9 to July 15.

The process of eye tracking is currently being used in many researches including marketing, psychology, human-computer interaction and virtual reality (VR) technology. In the VR world, eye-tracking technologies are being used in VR headsets to make gaming experiences more immersive and realistic.

TagsWebGazer, Brown University, Software Transforms Webcam Into Eye-Trackers, Virtual Reality, Software News, web development