Examining the validity of the total dwell time of eye fixations to identify landmarks in a building

It is uncertain to what extent the duration of eye fixations reflects the use of landmarks during navigation. Therefore, a study was conducted in which eye tracking data and route descriptions were collected of 23 participants who were highly familiar with the indoor test environment. Based on the total fixation time on different landmark categories, two measures were calculated, namely the calculated landmark category use and the probable landmark category use. Based on the ratio between these measures an object was considered to be a landmark or not. The results were then compared with the objects referenced to in written route instructions. It can be concluded that promising results were provided by this method to identify landmarks. This landmark identification criterion strongly reflected the landmarks that came forward in the written route instructions. However, issues related to the identification of structural landmarks remain a problem.

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