Researchers Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast discuss the surprising discoveries archaeologists are making thanks to new technology. Plus: learn how eye-tracking software can tell you more about you than you think.
Researchers Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast discuss the surprising discoveries archaeologists are making thanks to new technology. Plus: learn how eye-tracking software can tell you more about you than you think.
Eye-tracking software can tell more about you than you think by Grant Currin
Additional resources from Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast:
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-technology-is-enabling-archeological-discoveries-w-elizabeth-sawchuk-and-mary-prendergast-and-the-privacy-risks-of-eye-tracking-tech
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how eye-tracking software can tell more about you than you think; and the surprising discoveries archaeologists are making thanks to new technology, with researchers Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Eye tracking software can tell you… a ridiculous amount of information. Like… almost definitely more than you think. This is one of those occasional stories where Ashley literally didn’t believe me when I told her about it. [ad lib]
And look, this is good to know because eye tracking isn’t going away any time soon. As we speak, there are smartphones that let you scroll with just a shift of your gaze. There are VR headsets that will render only the parts of a scene you’re looking at. And there are companies analyzing where customers look on their websites to optimize their marketing efforts. Eye tracking is the next hot thing in technology. But it’s also the next big privacy concern.
Researchers have tried to glean information from eye movements since the early 1900s, but the technique has really taken off in the last few decades. Eye tracking has found its way into technologies we encounter all the time — not just smart glasses or VR headsets. New software can turn the cameras on your laptop, phone, or tablet into sensors that can peek into your soul — or at least reveal private aspects of your identity.
Scholars in Germany recently reviewed a ton of research about the privacy implications of eye-tracking technology and summed up their findings in a book chapter. Their startling conclusion is, quote, “eye tracking data may implicitly contain information about a user's” [big dramatic breath…] “biometric identity, gender, age, ethnicity, body weight, personality traits, drug consumption habits, emotional state, skills and abilities, fears, interests, and sexual preferences,” end quote. They’re also concerned that eye-tracking technologies can monitor what a person’s thinking and even diagnose physical or mental health conditions.
Eye-tracking tech doesn’t even need that much information to make inferences about your mood and emotional state. Some researchers have found ways to make fine-grained distinctions between similar emotions using relatively little data, like pupil size, how and when someone blinks, where they look, and how quickly they move their eyes. In 2017, a research team filed a patent for a system that could distinguish between happiness and enthusiasm. In a paper published the same year, researchers demonstrated that they could distinguish between acute stress and worry.
What does this mean for the future? Well, the implications of these technologies come down to how they’re used, so it’s tough to say. But scholars, journalists, and advocacy groups aren’t playing wait-and-see. Every time governments and companies roll out new uses for this cool — and creepy — technology, they’ll have their eyes on it.
In less worrisome technology news, archaeologists are making discoveries faster than ever thanks to new cutting-edge tools.
New technology is helping archaeologists make discoveries faster than ever. And what those discoveries are teaching us about human history will blow your mind. Today we’re joined by two researchers to help us DIG IN to this surprising science: Elizabeth Sawchuk is a postdoctoral researcher and research assistant professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University in New York. And Mary Prendergast is a professor of Anthropology and Share of Humanities at St Louis University’s Madrid Campus. Here’s Elizabeth on how technology is helping us unearth insights into human history like never before.
[CLIP 3:43]
Pretty wild, right? You can find a link in today’s show notes to the article they referenced in our interview, which they co-authored in January for The Conversation. There’s also a link to the study they referenced, which is published in the journal Nature. Stay subscribed to Curiosity Daily to hear from both Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast over the next couple Tuesdays, as we continue to shine a spotlight on the latest in their field of research.
CODY: Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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CODY: Today’s first story was written by Grant Currin, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!