ABSTRACT
Eye gaze has been described as a powerful instrument in social interaction, serving a multitude of functions and displaying particular patterns in relation to speech, gesture and other semiotic resources. Recently developed data collection techniques, including wearable camera systems and mobile eye-tracking systems, allow researchers to generate fine-grained information on the gaze orientation of multiple participants simultaneously while they are engaged in face-to-face or mediated interactions. This chapter presents an overview of studies that have used mobile eye-tracking systems to study the tight interaction and temporal dependencies between gaze patterns and other bodily behaviour both within single participants and across participants engaged in dialogue. In reviewing the growing body of eye-tracking studies that deal with multimodal interaction, the chapter covers multiple disciplines (including linguistics, social and experimental psychology, research on human-computer interaction, etc.), which at times have radically different methodological traditions, making comparisons across the border a challenging task. Through a careful exploration of the differences and commonalities between the methods used in mobile eye-tracking research, the chapter aims to contribute to the building of bridges and – ideally also – to the collaboration between different disciplines interested in the study of eye gaze in interaction.
