Wherever you look, there is always a dot.

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One of the richest publicly available sources for this kind of data is GazeBase, a large-scale eye-tracking dataset that includes many different visual tasks. In this first post, I focus on one of its most interesting tasks: the Random Saccade Task, a setup designed to capture rapid, unpredictable shifts in gaze.

The task itself is straightforward. Every one second, a new target point appears on the screen. The participant’s job is simply to shift their gaze from the previous target to the new one. This continues until a total of 100 target points have been shown—one point per second.

During this process, a 1000 Hz gaze tracker records the participant’s eye movements. That means the device captures 1000 gaze samples every second, producing 1000 gaze dots for each target point. Over the entire task, this results in a dense stream of eye-movement data that reveals how the eyes accelerate, decelerate, fixate, and jump between points.

Below is a visual representation of how the participant’s eyes moved from one target to the next across the task.

Why Analyse Gaze Data So Important?

One day, I found myself asking a strange question. Becoming a gaze data scientist doesn’t look like saving human lives. It’s not a life-or-death responsibility, unlike being a doctor. And honestly, it also doesn’t sound like a “do you want to get rich?” career path. I’m not chasing money anyway. I’m chasing something that feels more satisfying to the soul rather than the body.

So I took this question seriously.

Instead of Googling, I did something more efficient: I asked ChatGPT. With the same question and context, repeatedly, until the answer became deeper. And from there, something clicked. Something like a small enlightenment.

Analysing gaze data is not just about dots on a screen. It’s about understanding how humans perceive, think, and make decisions. Every movement of the eye is a tiny window into attention, intention, confusion, desire, stress, curiosity, or even deception. Gaze is the shortest route between perception and action.

Suddenly, the work felt meaningful.

When you analyse gaze, you’re not just crunching numbers. You’re unlocking patterns that can make technology more humane, cars safer, learning more intuitive, games more immersive, UX more empathetic, and communication more honest. Gaze is the closest signal we have to the brain’s front-line decision system.

And that’s why this journey matters. Because the eyes never lie, and the data they produce can teach us more about humans than we ever expected…

…and here are the five most important reasons why gaze analysis matters:

1. Gaze reveals what the mind prioritises

Your eyes move before your conscious thought kicks in. When you track gaze, you’re essentially tracking the brain’s “first reaction system.” It reveals what attracts attention, what is overlooked, what confuses people, and what persuades them. Designers spend millions guessing these things; gaze data removes the guesswork.

2. Gaze helps build safer technologies

From driver monitoring systems to aviation dashboards, eye-tracking can detect distraction, fatigue, or stress before accidents happen. Cars, planes, and even industrial machines now rely on gaze signals to understand human readiness. A tiny eye movement can literally prevent a disaster.

3. Gaze improves learning and cognitive understanding

Students often think they understand something, but their eyes reveal a different story. Gaze heatmaps show which parts of a slide, textbook, or simulation they actually focus on. With this data, educators can design more precise explanations, reduce confusion, and personalise learning paths.
In short, you can see how people learn, not just what they score.

4. Gaze enhances experiences—from UX to gaming

In UX research, gaze shows where users struggle, hesitate, or get lost. In gaming, it reveals emotional intensity: where players panic, anticipate, miss cues, and experience a sense of mastery.
Gaze makes the invisible parts of the experience visible.

5. Gaze is the future of human–AI interaction

As AI assistants, AR glasses, VR headsets, and innovative interfaces become more prevalent, they must be able to understand human attention in real-time. Gaze is the most natural signal.
Imagine systems that know where you’re looking, what you intend to do, and when you’re overwhelmed.
Gaze analysis becomes the key to building intuitive, adaptive, human-centred AI.

So in the end, analysing gaze isn’t about dots. It’s about decoding humanity.

Epilog

This is my first post in my journey to become a Gaze Warrior. I don’t set aside any special time to write; I simply write whenever I manage to open my laptop. Sometimes that means typing with my kids beside me, asking me to play with them. But that’s part of the journey too—learning, writing, and growing in the small pockets of time life gives me.

See you in the next post!