eye tracking in sports

r When examining sports performance, there is a difference between looking and seeing. Training athletes to see the most relevant aspects of the target can enhance their trajectory estimation, visual search, and decision-making skills. These perceptual-cognitive processes are now accessible for objective evaluation with our eye tracking technology. 

Elite athletes demonstrate superior visual search strategies compared to novices in many sports and disciplines, including soccer, football, and tennis. Coaches use eye tracking for skill assessment and acquisition. They study how the eyes during training influences one’s ability to read the game and use this knowledge to shortcut the learning curve from novice to expert.

Eye tracking is measuring and recording eye movement. It monitors how the eyes move, what they ignore, and how the pupil reacts to various visual stimuli. An eye tracker is safe and non-invasive device that uses infrared light to detect movement in the eyes. Interpreting these eye movements is quite complex, as the eyes can move minutely or in broad strokes, in straight lines or arcs, and the pupils can dilate or contract at different rates. Moreover, all this can happen several times, every second. In order to effectively analyze the collected data, it is uploaded to a software, which helps the coaches and athletes observe the various movements and patterns that occur during training.