Identifying the Location of a Concealed Object through Unintentional Eye Movements

• Main Authors: Yair eNeuman, Dan eAssaf, Navot eIsraeli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-04-01
• Series: Frontiers in Psychology
• Subjects: Eye Movements; homeland security; Forensic investigation; Concealed object; endogenous/exogenous attention
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00381/full
• ISSN: 1664-1078

In some investigative and interrogative contexts, the investigator is seeking to identify the location of an object (e.g. implanted bomb) which is known to a given subject (e.g. a terrorist). In this paper, we present a non-intrusive methodology for uncovering the loci of a concealed object by analyzing the subject's eye movements. Using a combination of eye tracking, psychological manipulation and a search algorithm, we have performed two experiments. In the first experiment, we have gained 58% hit rate in identifying the location of the concealed object and in the second experiment 56% hit rate. The pros and cons of the methodology for forensic investigation are discussed.