Papers by Stanislav Popelka
Journal of Baltic Science Education, 2020
Graphs are often used to represent mathematical functions, to illustrate data from social and nat... more Graphs are often used to represent mathematical functions, to illustrate data from social and natural sciences, or to specify scientific theories. With increasing emphasis on the development of scientific research skills, the work with graphs and data interpretation are gaining in importance. The research involved an eye-tracking experiment conducted to evaluate student work with graphs in physics. Eye-movement data were recorded using the GazePoint eye-tracker. A total of 40 third-year grammar school students participated in the research. These students were allocated into three groups by a physics teacher. These groups were called PLUS, AVERAGE and MINUS. The PLUS group showed excellent results in education and included gifted physics students. The MINUS group was composed of the opposite end of this cognitive spectrum, whose members made the most mistakes in graph reading. The aim of the experiment was to find the differences between students allocated to these three groups and to evaluate whether the allocation based on the teacher’s experience, long-term observations and the students’ previous achievements was sufficient. The results showed that students from all three groups had problems with reading graphs in physics. According to the eye-movement data, several students who had been incorrectly assigned to groups were identified.
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This paper evaluates the influence of relief shading in finding labels on tourist maps. Two types... more This paper evaluates the influence of relief shading in finding labels on tourist maps. Two types of maps were compared, one in which terrain was depicted with contour lines and spot heights, and the other enhanced with relief shading. The task was to find specific hills and villages. Two aspects were investigated-whether shading helped users find hills, and whether shading made it more difficult to find villages. The eye-tracking method was used for this study. The results indicate that respondents prefer shaded maps from an aesthetic point of view. Pair-wise comparison of individual stimuli pairs and groups of stimuli was performed with the use of five eye-tracking metrics. Most of the eye-tracking metrics were significantly different for most of the stimuli. The results of the experiment show that shaded maps are less suitable for finding hills and villages. The least effective result was observed in finding villages on a shaded map.
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Glyphs are small geometric shapes that in geovisualization are often used to represent multidimen... more Glyphs are small geometric shapes that in geovisualization are often used to represent multidimensional spatial data. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of their two types – star and polyline glyphs, as they can encode the same message and can provide similar functionality. Thus, if the two glyph types are similar and can be used for the same data, the question arises as to which of them better facilitates various user tasks. To address this question, an empirical study of 26 individual users is conducted to investigate differences in user performance for polyline and star glyphs shown either in a grid plot or on a map display. In this study, a task-based approach with eye-tracking is applied, as well as a subjective questionnaire and a psychological test of cognitive style. The finding is that polyline glyphs better facilitate tasks when datapoint values in glyphs are to be read, whereas star glyphs are better when a visual search among glyphs is to be done. Moreover, the results reveal that the map display works better than the grid plot. If star glyphs are to be used, the key (legend) needs to be better incorporated into a visual interface.
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The chapter describes an eye-tracking study focused on the evaluation of 2D and pseudo 3D visuali... more The chapter describes an eye-tracking study focused on the evaluation of 2D and pseudo 3D visualization of urban areas in cartography. Three-dimensional visualization is used by an increasing number of visualization applications and work systems. However, there is still little known about when it is appropriate to use 3D visualizations, and how 3D can be used in visualization most efficiently. Few studies have focused on the evaluation of 3D in maps. Most use the questionnaire as the main investigation method. Two studies described in this chapter were performed with the use of eye-tracking, which allows the researcher to analyze user strategy during task completion and not only their final judgments or decisions. The chapter is focused on the evaluation of photorealistic and non-photorealistic 3D visualization of urban areas via two eye-tracking experiments. The first deals with non-photorealistic visualization of cities in map portals. The second, images of created 3D model of an extinct village. The goal of the chapter is to determine the efficiency of 3D visualization of urban areas.
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This paper describes a study of the evaluation of cartographic quality of urban plans in the Czec... more This paper describes a study of the evaluation of cartographic quality of urban plans in the Czech Republic using eye-tracking. Although map visualization is a crucial part of the urban planning process, only a few studies have focused on the evaluation of these maps. The plans of four Czech cities with different styles of visualization and legends were used in this eye-tracking experiment. Respondents were required to solve spatial tasks consisting of finding and marking a certain symbol on a map. Statistical analyses of various eye-tracking metrics were used, and the differences between experts and students and between the map and legend sections of the stimuli were explored. The study results showed that the quality of map symbols and the map legend significantly influence the legibility and understandability of urban plans. For correct decision-making, it is essential to produce maps according to certain standards, to make them as clear as possible, and to perform usability testing on them.
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Although many 3D thematic cartography methods exist, the effectiveness of their use is not known.... more Although many 3D thematic cartography methods exist, the effectiveness of their use is not known. The described experiment comprised two parts focusing on the evaluation of two 3D thematic cartography methods (Prism Map and Illuminated Choropleth Map) compared to a simple choropleth map. The task in both parts of the experiment was to determine which of the marked areas showed a higher value of the displayed phenomenon. The correctness of answers, response time and selected eye-tracking metrics were analysed. In the first part of the experiment, a higher number of correct answers was found for Prism Maps than for simple choropleth maps, but it required more time to solve the task. The Illuminated Choropleth Map showed a higher proportion of correct answers than a simple choropleth map. During evaluation of the eye-tracking metrics, a statistically significant difference was not found in most cases.
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The demo describes new features of ScanGraph, an application intended for a finding of participan... more The demo describes new features of ScanGraph, an application intended for a finding of participants with a similar stimulus reading strategy based on the sequences of visited Areas of Interest. The result is visualised using cliques of a simple graph. ScanGraph was initially introduced in 2016. Since the original publication, new features were added. First of them is the implementation of Damerau-Levenshtein algorithm for similarity calculation. A heuristic algorithm for cliques finding used in the original version was replaced by the Bron-Kerbosch algorithm. ScanGraph reads data from open-source application OGAMA, and with the use of conversion tool also data from SMI BeGaze, which allows analysing dynamic stimuli as well. The most prominent enhancement is the possibility of similarity calculation among participants not only for a single stimulus but for multiple files at once.
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This paper describes a new tool for eye-tracking data and their analysis with the use of interact... more This paper describes a new tool for eye-tracking data and their analysis with the use of interactive 3D models. This tool helps to analyse interactive 3D mod-els easier than by time-consuming, frame-by-frame investigation of captured screen recordings with superimposed scanpaths. The main function of this tool, called 3DgazeR, is to calculate 3D coordinates (X, Y, Z coordinates of the 3D scene) for individual points of view. These 3D coordinates can be calculated from the values of the position and orientation of a virtual camera and the 2D coordinates of the gaze upon the screen. The functionality of 3DgazeR is intro-duced in a case study example using Digital Elevation Models as stimuli. The purpose of the case study was to verify the functionality of the tool and discover the most suitable visualization methods for geographic 3D models. Five selected methods are presented in the results section of the paper. Most of the output was created in a Geographic Information System. 3DgazeR works with the SMI eye-tracker and the low-cost EyeTribe tracker connected with open source applica-tion OGAMA, and can compute 3D coordinates from raw data and fixations.
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Usability testing with the use of eye-tracking technology is now emerging. Measuring point of gaz... more Usability testing with the use of eye-tracking technology is now emerging. Measuring point of gaze is employed in different fields of research and helps to solve real world problems. One of these areas is cartography. In addition to traditional methods of analyses of eye-tracking data, as attention maps and gaze plots are, a more sophisticated method exists – scanpath comparison. Many different approaches to scanpath comparison exist. One of the most frequently used is String Edit Distance, where the gaze trajectories are replaced by the sequences of visited Areas of Interest. In cartography, these Areas of Interest could be marked around specific parts of maps – map composition elements. We have developed an online tool called ScanGraph which output is visualized as a simple graph, and similar groups of sequences are displayed as cliques of this graph. ScanGraph uses modified Levenshtein distance and Needleman-Wunsch algorithms for calculating the similarities between sequences of visited Areas of Interest. Cliques in the graph are sought with the use of the exhaustive algorithm. ScanGraph functionality is presented in the example of cartographic study dealing with uncertainty in maps. Stimuli in the study contained several visualization methods of uncertainty and eye-tracking experiment with 40 respondents was performed. With the use of ScanGraph, groups of participants with similar strategy were identified.
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The article describes a new tool for analyses of eye-movement data. Many different approaches to ... more The article describes a new tool for analyses of eye-movement data. Many different approaches to scanpath comparison exist. One of the most frequently used approaches is String Edit Distance, where the gaze trajectories are replaced by the sequences of visited Areas of Interest. In cartographic literature, the most commonly used software for scanpath comparison is eyePatterns. During the analysis of eyePatterns functionality, we have found that tree-graph visualization of its results is not reliable. Thus, we decided to develop a new tool called ScanGraph. Its computational algorithms are modified to work better with the sequences with different lengths. The output is visualized as a simple graph, and similar groups of sequences are displayed as cliques of this graph. The article describes ScanGraph’s functionality on the example of a simple cartographic eye-tracking study. Differences of the reading strategy of a simple map between cartographic experts and novices were investigated. The paper should serve to the researchers who would like to analyze differences between groups of participants, and who would like to use our tool - ScanGraph, available at www.eyetracking.upol.cz/scangraph.
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The paper deals with the issue of movement of citizens of two main cities in the Czech Republic. ... more The paper deals with the issue of movement of citizens of two main cities in the Czech Republic. The study is based on the questionnaire survey within which responses from more than 500 respondents in each city were collected. The questionnaire consisted of basic questions (information about respondents and their opinion) and of detailed information about transport behavior (e.g. the beginnings and ends of the most common routes, the most visited sites, etc.), which were further processed using spatial analysis. The key part of the questionnaire was focused on the travel diary, where respondents have described various routes during a typical working day and on a weekend. Totally more than 4,000 particular routes were collected.
The paper describes the results of a study of transport behavior, solved in the research project (Spatial simulation modeling of accessibility). By using GIS methods (kernel density estimation) and by using software V-Analytics new information about the citizens’ movement was identified. Obtained findings and outputs include information about main directions of movement and most visited places (hot spots for several activities and several transport means). Achieved outputs may serve as an additional source of information useful for many planning activities like creation of urban plans or optimization of the transport systems in the cities.
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The paper describes an eye-tracking study focused on verification of the suitability of 3D visual... more The paper describes an eye-tracking study focused on verification of the suitability of 3D visualization in thematic cartography.
The use of 3D visualization for depicting the relief or urban areas is relatively common. For thematic 3D visualization, the situation is different. Although many methods exist (Stacks of Data Point, Prism Map, Space-Time-Cube, Informational Landscape and others), 3D thematic maps are not very widespread. However, sometimes these maps appear in the media, and 3D thematic maps generators exist. Disadvantages of (especially static) 3D visualization (overlapping, perspective distortion) are more significant for 3D thematic maps than for example for a perspective view of relief. Thematic content is crucial in these maps. Therefore, its overlay or deformation is very undesirable.
The aim of the experiment was to compare two methods of visualization of 3D point symbols – points displayed on the 2D map and on the virtual globe. The experiment contained eight pairs of maps of Europe containing point symbol in each country. The point symbols were randomly assigned to three categories – small, medium and large. The task of 40 respondents was to select all symbols from the medium category. During the experiment, the hypothesis that distinction of point sizes will be more difficult on the virtual globe was tested.
The accuracy of answers was evaluated. Eye-tracking data were visualized and analysed statistically. The results showed that determination of the point size was slower on the virtual globe and respondents also made more mistakes. The perspective distortion of the globe confused the participants.
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The paper is dealing with scanpath comparison of eye-tracking data recorded during case study foc... more The paper is dealing with scanpath comparison of eye-tracking data recorded during case study focused on the evaluation of 2D and 3D city maps. The experiment contained screenshots from three map portals. Two types of maps were used-standard map and 3D visualization. Respondents' task was to find particular point symbol on the map as fast as possible. Scanpath comparison is one group of the eye-tracking data analyses methods used for revealing the strategy of the respondents. In cartographic studies, the most commonly used application for scanpath comparison is eyePatterns that output is hierarchical clustering and a tree graph representing the relationships between analysed sequences. During an analysis of the algorithm generating a tree graph, it was found that the outputs do not correspond to the reality. We proceeded to the creation of a new tool called ScanGraph. This tool uses visualization of cliques in simple graphs and is freely available at www.eyetracking.upol.cz/scangraph. Results of the study proved the functionality of the tool and its suitability for analyses of different strategies of map readers. Based on the results of the tool, similar scanpaths were selected, and groups of respondents with similar strategies were identified. With this knowledge, it is possible to analyse the relationship between belonging to the group with similar strategy and data gathered from the questionnaire (age, sex, cartographic knowledge, etc.) or type of stimuli (2D, 3D map).
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The main aim of presented paper is to find the most realistic and preferred color settings for fo... more The main aim of presented paper is to find the most realistic and preferred color settings for four different types of surfaces on the aerial images. This will be achieved through user study with the use of eye-movement recording. Aerial images taken by the unmanned aerial system were used as stimuli. From each image, squared crop area containing one of the studied types of surfaces (asphalt, concrete, water, soil, and grass) was selected. For each type of surface, the real value of reflectance was found with the use of precise spectroradiometer ASD HandHeld 2 which measures the reflectance. The device was used at the same time as aerial images were captured, so lighting conditions and state of vegetation were equal. The spectral resolution of the ASD device is better than 3.0 nm. For defining the RGB values of selected type of surface, the spectral reflectance values recorded by the device were merged into wider groups. Finally, we get three groups corresponding to RGB color system. Captured images were edited with the graphic editor Photoshop CS6. Contrast, clarity, and brightness were edited for all surface types on images. Finally, we get a set of 12 images of the same area with different color settings. These images were put into the grid and used as stimuli for the eye-tracking experiment. Eye-tracking is one of the methods of usability studies and it is considered as relatively objective. Eye-tracker SMI RED 250 with the sampling frequency 250 Hz was used in the study. As respondents, a group of 24 students of Geoinformatics and Geography was used. Their task was to select which image in the grid has the best color settings. The next task was to select which color settings they prefer. Respondents' answers were evaluated and the most realistic and most preferable color settings were found. The advantage of the eye-tracking evaluation was that also the process of the selection of the answers was analyzed. Areas of Interest were marked around each image in the grid and the sequences of gaze movements were analyzed. Sequence chart was used for visualization and eye-tracking metrics were statistically tested. The presented paper shows the differences in the perception and preferences of aerial images with different color settings.
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The mixed research design is a progressive methodological discourse that combines the advantages ... more The mixed research design is a progressive methodological discourse that combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methods. Its possibilities of application are, however, dependent on the efficiency with which the particular research techniques are used and combined. The aim of the paper is to introduce the possible combination of Hypothesis with EyeTribe tracker. The Hypothesis is intended for quantitative data acquisition and the EyeTribe for qualitative (eye-tracking) data recording.
In the first part of the paper, Hypothesis software is described. The Hypothesis platform provides an environment for web-based computerized experiment design and mass data collection. Then, evaluation of the accuracy of data recorded by EyeTribe tracker was performed with the use of concurrent recording together with the SMI RED 250 eye-tracker. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed that data accuracy is sufficient for cartographic research.
In the third part of the paper, a system for connecting EyeTribe tracker and Hypothesis software is presented. The interconnection was performed with the help of developed web application HypOgama. The created system uses open-source software OGAMA for recording the eye-movements of participants together with quantitative data from Hypothesis. The final part of the article describes the integrated research system combining Hypothesis and EyeTribe.
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The objective of the project was to create 3D visualization of an extinct village and its evaluat... more The objective of the project was to create 3D visualization of an extinct village and its evaluation using eye-tracking. As an area of interest, the extinct village of Čistá was selected. The village was located in Karlovy Vary Region in the Czech Republic and was destroyed in 1948. The village was destroyed to primarily to establish a military training area. Secondly, it was destroyed to create an instructional video for military purposes called “Fight in the settlement”. During the creation of this video, the village was destroyed.
The main content of the project was to create an interactive web application that includes a 3D model of the extinct village of Čistá. As base data, aerial photos made in 1947 and stable cadastre from 1841 were used. Buildings were made according to historical photographs and screen shots from the instructional video “Fight in a settlement.” The resulting 3D model and underlying data were loaded into Google Earth API and are available for the general public now.
The second part of the project was to test the model usability using eye-tracking. In total, 28 respondents participated in the experiment. The experiment contained two parts – the overall views of the village and tasks, where users were searching for a particular building. Recorded eye-tracking data were statistically and graphically analyzed. The results indicate that a 3D model was the most usable type of visualization for respondents.
A link to the application was placed on the web site of the project of an educational trail about extinct villages in the Slavkov Forest area. The created 3D model and application present the extinct village of Čistá to potential visitors of the educational trail.
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This article compares the accuracy and precision of the low-cost Eye Tribe tracker and a well-est... more This article compares the accuracy and precision of the low-cost Eye Tribe tracker and a well-established comparable eye tracker: SMI RED 250. Participants were instructed to fixate on predefined point locations on a screen. The accuracy is measured by the distance between the recorded fixation locations and the actual location. Precision is represented by the standard deviation of these measurements. Furthermore, the temporal precision of both eye tracking devices (sampling rate) is evaluated as well. The obtained results illustrate that a correct set-up and selection of software to record and process the data are of utmost importance to obtain acceptable results with the low-cost device. Nevertheless, with care- ful selections in each of these steps, the quality (accuracy and precision) of the recorded data can be considered comparable.
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To express spatial information there are lots of methods of cartographic visualization. Using the... more To express spatial information there are lots of methods of cartographic visualization. Using these various methods differ primarily in connection with the main purpose and objective of visualizations. To select appropriate methods of cartographic visualization and appropriate parameters of each method, it is necessary to perform user testing through the use of various cartographic tasks. Statistical evaluation of correctness and time performance of these cartographic tasks subsequently lead to the evaluation of each parameter of particular methods of cartographic visualization. When dealing with the cartographic tasks it is needed to define all aspects related to cartographic processing in a particular case. To evaluate the individual aspects of cartographic tasks it is possible to use a modern technological approach in the form of eye-tracking. The paper describes the use of eye-tracking technology in solving various cartographic tasks. It is a combination of outputs of a comprehensive set of eye-tracking experiments that address different areas of cartographic visualization with focus on the nontechnological aspects. All the evaluated aspects are related to the efficiency of information transfer from the map to the user, which is presented as the information perception. Individual experiments are focused on specific aspects of cartographic visualization - the use of text labels and fonts, use of colours, the map content (information vs. graphic), various methods of cartographic visualization, etc. The resulting comparison enables comprehensive view of the issue. The uniqueness of the study lies in the assembly and comparison of multiple experiments, not from the perspective of the individual research questions, but in the form of evaluation of different cartographic tasks solved by individual respondents.
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Eye-tracking technology was not fully utilized in the cartography or geosciences yet. With its us... more Eye-tracking technology was not fully utilized in the cartography or geosciences yet. With its use, ways of users reading of maps can be revealed, and maps can be optimized. Before eye-tracking evaluation, it is necessary to detect eye-movements like fixations and saccades. Paper deals with the evaluation of four different settings of the dispersion-based algorithm for optimal fixation detection for evaluation of maps. Data for the case study originated from the cartographic studies, where stimuli displayed the classical orthogonal maps and their 3D (perspective) equivalents. The paper describes the basics of eye movement recordings, its history and used methods. An emphasis is placed on the remote methods, which uses digital images of the front of the eye. Image recognition methods are used for detecting the position of the eye. From these data, fixations and saccades are calculated. Number of a detection algorithm exists. For the data recorded with a sampling frequency lower than 250Hz, IDT is mostly used. It is essential to find out the best settings of this algorithm. In the case study, three existing threshold settings were compared with the new one. Calculated fixations were compared with the plot of raw data, and the most relevant settings were chosen. For eye-movement analysis, it is possible to use software from the manufacturer, but there exist also the open-source alternative. Software OGAMA is fully sufficient for data analyses, but fixation detection thresholds are entered in a different way. Paper also describes the optimal fixation detection settings in this software. As a result, the fixation detection thresholds for I-DT which represents the recorded data at the best were created. Subsequently, the most corresponding settings were chosen in the open-source software for gaze analyses. The optimal eye fixation detection settings can be used in other cartographic studies using eye-tracking as the main evaluation method.
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The paper is focused on the selection of the creation of decision scheme for the selection of the... more The paper is focused on the selection of the creation of decision scheme for the selection of the most appropriate method for analyses and visualization of eye-tracking data in cartographic research. The first part of the paper contains literature review of used eye-tracking data analyses methods, their classification, description and presentation of outputs on the example of cartographic stimuli. Fifteen methods divided into seven categories were selected: - Visualization of trajectories – GazeReplay, Scanpath - Scanpath comparison - Attention maps - Areas of Interest – AOI Transitions, Gridded AOI, Sequence Chart - GIS analyses in V-Analytics software – FlowMap, TimeLine - Manual analysis of eye-tracking data - Statistical analysis – eye-tracking metrics The output of the paper is the decision scheme for the selection of the best suitable method. The output can be used for the selection of appropriate methods of analysis and visualization of eye-tracking data in future cartographic experiments. © SGEM2015.
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Papers by Stanislav Popelka
The paper describes the results of a study of transport behavior, solved in the research project (Spatial simulation modeling of accessibility). By using GIS methods (kernel density estimation) and by using software V-Analytics new information about the citizens’ movement was identified. Obtained findings and outputs include information about main directions of movement and most visited places (hot spots for several activities and several transport means). Achieved outputs may serve as an additional source of information useful for many planning activities like creation of urban plans or optimization of the transport systems in the cities.
The use of 3D visualization for depicting the relief or urban areas is relatively common. For thematic 3D visualization, the situation is different. Although many methods exist (Stacks of Data Point, Prism Map, Space-Time-Cube, Informational Landscape and others), 3D thematic maps are not very widespread. However, sometimes these maps appear in the media, and 3D thematic maps generators exist. Disadvantages of (especially static) 3D visualization (overlapping, perspective distortion) are more significant for 3D thematic maps than for example for a perspective view of relief. Thematic content is crucial in these maps. Therefore, its overlay or deformation is very undesirable.
The aim of the experiment was to compare two methods of visualization of 3D point symbols – points displayed on the 2D map and on the virtual globe. The experiment contained eight pairs of maps of Europe containing point symbol in each country. The point symbols were randomly assigned to three categories – small, medium and large. The task of 40 respondents was to select all symbols from the medium category. During the experiment, the hypothesis that distinction of point sizes will be more difficult on the virtual globe was tested.
The accuracy of answers was evaluated. Eye-tracking data were visualized and analysed statistically. The results showed that determination of the point size was slower on the virtual globe and respondents also made more mistakes. The perspective distortion of the globe confused the participants.
In the first part of the paper, Hypothesis software is described. The Hypothesis platform provides an environment for web-based computerized experiment design and mass data collection. Then, evaluation of the accuracy of data recorded by EyeTribe tracker was performed with the use of concurrent recording together with the SMI RED 250 eye-tracker. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed that data accuracy is sufficient for cartographic research.
In the third part of the paper, a system for connecting EyeTribe tracker and Hypothesis software is presented. The interconnection was performed with the help of developed web application HypOgama. The created system uses open-source software OGAMA for recording the eye-movements of participants together with quantitative data from Hypothesis. The final part of the article describes the integrated research system combining Hypothesis and EyeTribe.
The main content of the project was to create an interactive web application that includes a 3D model of the extinct village of Čistá. As base data, aerial photos made in 1947 and stable cadastre from 1841 were used. Buildings were made according to historical photographs and screen shots from the instructional video “Fight in a settlement.” The resulting 3D model and underlying data were loaded into Google Earth API and are available for the general public now.
The second part of the project was to test the model usability using eye-tracking. In total, 28 respondents participated in the experiment. The experiment contained two parts – the overall views of the village and tasks, where users were searching for a particular building. Recorded eye-tracking data were statistically and graphically analyzed. The results indicate that a 3D model was the most usable type of visualization for respondents.
A link to the application was placed on the web site of the project of an educational trail about extinct villages in the Slavkov Forest area. The created 3D model and application present the extinct village of Čistá to potential visitors of the educational trail.
The paper describes the results of a study of transport behavior, solved in the research project (Spatial simulation modeling of accessibility). By using GIS methods (kernel density estimation) and by using software V-Analytics new information about the citizens’ movement was identified. Obtained findings and outputs include information about main directions of movement and most visited places (hot spots for several activities and several transport means). Achieved outputs may serve as an additional source of information useful for many planning activities like creation of urban plans or optimization of the transport systems in the cities.
The use of 3D visualization for depicting the relief or urban areas is relatively common. For thematic 3D visualization, the situation is different. Although many methods exist (Stacks of Data Point, Prism Map, Space-Time-Cube, Informational Landscape and others), 3D thematic maps are not very widespread. However, sometimes these maps appear in the media, and 3D thematic maps generators exist. Disadvantages of (especially static) 3D visualization (overlapping, perspective distortion) are more significant for 3D thematic maps than for example for a perspective view of relief. Thematic content is crucial in these maps. Therefore, its overlay or deformation is very undesirable.
The aim of the experiment was to compare two methods of visualization of 3D point symbols – points displayed on the 2D map and on the virtual globe. The experiment contained eight pairs of maps of Europe containing point symbol in each country. The point symbols were randomly assigned to three categories – small, medium and large. The task of 40 respondents was to select all symbols from the medium category. During the experiment, the hypothesis that distinction of point sizes will be more difficult on the virtual globe was tested.
The accuracy of answers was evaluated. Eye-tracking data were visualized and analysed statistically. The results showed that determination of the point size was slower on the virtual globe and respondents also made more mistakes. The perspective distortion of the globe confused the participants.
In the first part of the paper, Hypothesis software is described. The Hypothesis platform provides an environment for web-based computerized experiment design and mass data collection. Then, evaluation of the accuracy of data recorded by EyeTribe tracker was performed with the use of concurrent recording together with the SMI RED 250 eye-tracker. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed that data accuracy is sufficient for cartographic research.
In the third part of the paper, a system for connecting EyeTribe tracker and Hypothesis software is presented. The interconnection was performed with the help of developed web application HypOgama. The created system uses open-source software OGAMA for recording the eye-movements of participants together with quantitative data from Hypothesis. The final part of the article describes the integrated research system combining Hypothesis and EyeTribe.
The main content of the project was to create an interactive web application that includes a 3D model of the extinct village of Čistá. As base data, aerial photos made in 1947 and stable cadastre from 1841 were used. Buildings were made according to historical photographs and screen shots from the instructional video “Fight in a settlement.” The resulting 3D model and underlying data were loaded into Google Earth API and are available for the general public now.
The second part of the project was to test the model usability using eye-tracking. In total, 28 respondents participated in the experiment. The experiment contained two parts – the overall views of the village and tasks, where users were searching for a particular building. Recorded eye-tracking data were statistically and graphically analyzed. The results indicate that a 3D model was the most usable type of visualization for respondents.
A link to the application was placed on the web site of the project of an educational trail about extinct villages in the Slavkov Forest area. The created 3D model and application present the extinct village of Čistá to potential visitors of the educational trail.