The Eyes Have It: The Utility of Eye Tracking Technology

The following article was written for subscribers to the Wiser! Newsletter. To get early access to long form articles about today’s technology shaping tomorrow’s digital world, join the mailing list.

The Eyes Have It: The Utility of Eye Tracking Technology

You’d think that eye tracking technology is so very 21st century, simply a product of the internet age. But you’d be wrong! The very first eye tracking devices were developed in the early 1900s, and they were quite rudimentary. They used beams of light to track the movement of the eye, and the data was recorded on film.

It wasn’t until the 1960s when mobile eye tracking technology was developed and has more in common with the computer-based eye tracking devices we have today. These early devices used sensors to track the movement of the eye. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were great advances in both the technology and the psychological theories behind eye tracking.

In the 1990s, eye tracking technology started to become more widely used in research and commercial settings. Companies like Tobii, the market leaders in eye tracking tech, started to develop eye tracking devices that could be used in a variety of settings, like labs, offices, and even homes. In the 2000s, eye tracking…