FALLS CHURCH, Va., July 2010 — If you begin to see people wearing large, oddly shaped eyeglasses at your favorite store, here’s why: In the never-ending quest to find out why people buy what they do, Tobii Technology has debuted Tobii Glasses, an eye-tracking device that market research study participants can wear while they shop.

(Images: Tobii Technology)

In market research, eye-tracking is used to link shoppers’ visual behaviors to actual purchases made. Tobii Glasses are designed to capture behaviors such as scanning products on shelves, reading advertisements and labels and picking up products to try them or to inspect them more closely.

And it does this without the need for obtrusive mirrors, cameras, human observers or bulky equipment. According to the company, shopping remains a more natural activity, and the data collected has a higher level of validity than with other methods.

The information is captured instantly and analyzed with software, bypassing the need for time-consuming manual analysis.

No, these glasses don’t look like normal eyewear. But the company developed Tobii Glasses to be as unobtrusive as possible, with a lightweight design that doesn’t obstruct the shopper’s frontal view.

Tobii Technology just debuted the glasses at the Shopper Insights in Action 2010 conference in Chicago, where General Manager of Tobii North America Barbara Barclay commented, “We expect this technology will open up opportunities for discovery within many fields of research.”

Perhaps in vision care as well?

Read more: http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/eye-news.htm#ixzz1CvE0mtrA