Eye Movements in Perception, Interaction and Visual Guidance of Actions

我们通过不断移动眼睛，细致入微地看到不同的位置，从而感知周围的世界。在过去的几十年里，研究人员已经很好地了解了我们最有可能看哪里，例如，当我们看书或电脑屏幕时，或者当我们看照片或电影时。然而，这只是故事的一部分。当我们用手做某事时，例如，建造什么东西或做饭，我们用眼睛来引导我们的手。换句话说，我们也用我们的视野来控制我们的行动。人们对这种眼手协调知之甚少，主要是因为直到最近才有高质量的眼球跟踪器问世，这种跟踪器能够在我们移动头部和身体时跟踪我们的眼睛。*这个项目的目标是对眼手协调中的眼球运动进行系统的调查，这将导致以下问题的答案。与我们互动的物体的属性如何影响眼球运动？例如，眼球运动是如何根据我们与之互动的物体的数量而变化的，这些物体是静止的还是移动的，或者我们预期的操作是否存在障碍？与物体的预期互动如何影响眼球运动？例如，我们只是想触摸一个物体，还是抓住它，还是操纵它，这很重要吗？我们是用手还是用工具与物体互动，这重要吗？找到这些问题的答案将使我们更好地理解眼手协调。几个例子说明了这项研究的重要性。1)我们为身体康复患者开发了一个互动台，并在当地一家康复医院进行了原型系统的日常使用。然而，我们需要更好地了解患者是如何使用这张桌子的，以便使它更适应他们的需求和能力。对眼-手协调的良好理解将使这一点成为可能。2)我们正在开发一种新的方法来跟踪截肢者在操作假臂时对视觉的依赖程度，我们通过结合运动跟踪和眼睛跟踪来做到这一点。这将使我们能够评估截肢者必须在多大程度上观察假臂才能操作它，并将使我们能够评估不同假肢装置的有效性。3)很快，市场上将会有智能手机和平板电脑，它们不仅可以对触摸做出反应，还可以对手部动作和眼部动作做出反应。为了有效地设计和使用这些设备，我们必须更好地了解眼球运动和手部运动之间的相互作用。我的研究将使这成为可能。**

We perceive the world around us by continuously moving our eyes to see different locations in fine detail. Over the past few decades, researchers have obtained a good understanding of where we are most likely to look, for example, when we read a book or a computer screen, or when we look at photos or movies. This is, however, only one part of the story. When with work on something with our hands, for example, building something or cooking a dinner, we use our eyes to guide our hands. In other words, we also use our vision to control our actions. This eye-hand coordination is much less understood, mostly because only recently have good quality eye trackers become available that are able to track our eyes while we move our head and body. ******The goal of this project is a systematic investigation of eye movements in eye-hand coordination, which will lead to answers to the following questions. How do the properties of objects we interact with affect the eye movements? For example, how do eye movements change depending on the number of objects we are interacting with, whether the objects are static or moving, or whether there are obstacles to our intended manipulations? How does the intended interaction with the objects affect eye movements? For example, does it matter whether we simply want to touch an object, or grab it, or manipulate it? Does it matter whether we interact with an object with the hands or a tool? Finding answers to these questions will lead to a much better understanding of eye-hand coordination.******A few examples illustrate the importance of this research. 1) We have developed an interactive table for patients in physical rehabilitation, and a prototype system is currently in daily use at a local rehabilitation hospital. We need, however, a much better understanding of how the patients use the table in order to make it more adaptive to their needs and abilities. A good understanding of eye-hand coordination will allow this. 2) We are developing a new method for tracking how much amputees rely on vision to operate a prosthetic arm, which we do by combining movement tracking with eye tracking. This will allow us to assess to what extent an amputee must physically watch the artificial arm in order to operate it and will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of different prosthesis devices. 3) Soon there will be smartphones and tablets on the market that can respond not only to touch, but also to hand movements and eye movements. In order to design and use these devices effectively, we must have a better understanding of the interaction between eye movements and hand movements. My research will make this possible.**