Digital Humanities Marathon: Digital Design Experience

White Night 2017

Insights into complex worlds and improved design from eye tracking

Associate Professor Adrian Dyer, RMIT University

To perceive a scene as a whole image, our brains build a visual representation of the environment from many point samples obtained as our eyes move imperceptibly through the scene. Current digital technology enables us to track people's eyes in very complex environments, giving us insights into how the brain builds visual representations. With this information we can more optimally design green spaces, improve apps for navigating through environments, or train people to become better pilots, medical practitioners or designers. We will share for the first time our experiences at eye tracking Melbourne's White Night to see how artwork engages viewer experience. By discussing the latest innovations and breakthroughs, we hope to enable a wider field of people and researchers using eye tracking to enrich how we design interaction with the modern world.

Adrian Dyer is a visual ecologist who maps how natural vision solves problems in complex environments. A major focus is on digital imaging to collect high quality empirical data to allow for improved design, and working with a variety of domain experts to construct digital representations of complex behaviours to interpret relationships of primary importance for resource management. Adrian is based within the School of Media and Communications at RMIT University and has previously won several prestigious Fellowships (Alexander von Humboldt, La Trobe University, ARC QEII), and published in the world's leading journals like Nature.

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Image: 'White Night 2017', Adrian Dyer