ArticleBehavior research methods2023
OWLET: An automated, open-source method for infant gaze tracking using smartphone and webcam recordings.
Article in Behavior research methods, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the impact of unpredictability of household resources on infant attention.Infant behavior & development · 2026Article
- COVID-19 infection during pregnancy and infant neurodevelopment.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Comparing automated gaze classifiers in infant looking studies: Accuracy and vulnerability to environmental factors.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Deep learning in fetal, infant, and toddler neuroimaging research.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- From focus to function: Longitudinal insights into infant attention and emerging executive functions via remote webcam eye tracking.Developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Catching up with iCatcher: Comparing analyses of infant eye tracking based on trained human coders and iCatcher+ automated gaze coding software.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Disease Prediction Using Machine Learning on Smartphone-Based Eye, Skin, and Voice Data: Scoping Review.JMIR AI · 2025Review
- Article
- The fundamentals of eye tracking part 4: Tools for conducting an eye tracking study.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Impact of maternal antenatal nutrition and infection treatment interventions on Longitudinal Infant Development and Growth in rural Ethiopia: protocol of the LIDG child follow-up study.BMJ paediatrics open · 2024Article
- Prenatal Stress and Maternal Role in Neurodevelopment.Annual review of developmental psychology · 2024Article
- Online Eye Tracking for Aphasia: A Feasibility Study Comparing Web and Lab Tracking and Implications for Clinical Use.Brain and behavior · 2024Article
- Exploration of factors affecting webcam-based automated gaze coding.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Effects of prenatal psychosocial stress and COVID-19 infection on infant attention and socioemotional development.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- Validation of an open source, remote web-based eye-tracking method (WebGazer) for research in early childhood.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant StudiesArticle
- iCatcher+: Robust and Automated Annotation of Infants' and Young Children's Gaze Behavior From Videos Collected in Laboratory, Field, and Online Studies.Advances in methods and practices in psychological scienceArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Groundbreaking insights into the origins of the human mind have been garnered through the study of eye movements in preverbal subjects who are unable to explain their thought processes. Developmental research has largely relied on in-lab testing with trained experimenters. This constraint provides a narrow window into infant cognition and impedes large-scale data collection in families from diverse socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural backgrounds. Here we introduce a new open-source methodology for automatically analyzing infant eye-tracking data collected on personal devices in the home. Using algorithms from computer vision, machine learning, and ecological psychology, we develop an online webcam-linked eye tracker (OWLET) that provides robust estimation of infants' point of gaze from smartphone and webcam recordings of infant assessments in the home. We validate OWLET in a large sample of 7-month-old infants (N = 127) tested remotely, using an established visual attention task. We show that this new method reliably estimates infants' point-of-gaze across a variety of contexts, including testing on both computers and mobile devices, and exhibits excellent external validity with parental-report measures of attention. Our platform fills a significant gap in current tools available for rapid online data collection and large-scale assessments of cognitive processes in infants. Remote assessment addresses the need for greater diversity and accessibility in human studies and may support the ecological validity of behavioral experiments. This constitutes a critical and timely advance in a core domain of developmental research and in psychological science more broadly.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.