Scanpath Analysis

Even though devices recording gaze position are not new, it was just recently that the technology became more available and affordable. The data are recorded as a sequence of gaze coordinates that is processed into fixations and saccades. From fixations, it is possible to find out how long a person looked at a certain place. Saccades determine the transition between fixations. Together, they form a scanpath, which makes it possible to determine the sequence, in which the fixations occurred. Recorded scanpaths can be analyzed or compared to each other.
In our work, we focus on scanpath analysis and comparison. The main task is the analysis and implementation of the algorithm for the sequential patterns mining (SPAM), followed by its comparison with other already existing algorithms. The algorithm efficiency comparison will take place on data from an experiment that explored people’s creativity. There are also data from a Big Five questionnaire that participants of this experiment completed. We plan to evaluate similarities and differences in scanpaths between different groups of participants based on their resulting score in the various areas of the questionnaire, such as openness or neuroticism.