Measuring perceived beauty of the Great Barrier Reef using eye-tracking technology

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to test the usefulness of eye-tracking in measuring the perceived beauty of photos of the Great Barrier Reef. Eye-tracking is used to measure visual attention (fixation count, fixation duration) to 21 photos ranked in the degree of perceived beauty. Results indicate significant differences in visual attention to ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ photos and a significant correlation between average perceived beauty and attention measures. This study provides evidence that eye-tracking can be used to measure the relative perceived beauty of natural images reflecting the attention given to ‘attractive’ images.

KEYWORDS:

• Aesthetics
• perceived beauty
• attention
• eye-tracking
• Great Barrier Reef
• World Heritage

Acknowledgement

This study was conducted within a NESP-Tropical Water Quality Hub project (3.2.3) on the ‘Monitoring aesthetic value of the Great Barrier Reef by using artificial intelligence to score photos and videos’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Environment Science Program Tropical Water Quality Hub [grant number NESP-Tropical Water Quality Hub project (3.2.3)].