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SmartGaze is ParallelDots’ automated gaze-coding solution for physical eye-tracking studies—not a tool for writing software code. It is presented for package-design testing, in-store shopper research and UX studies using wearable eye-tracking glasses. Its purpose is to turn recorded gaze into coded attention measures and visualizations; separate tools such as CodeGRITS and CodeGazer use gaze to study or navigate source code.

What SmartGaze does

In an eye-tracking study, participants look at products, packaging, interfaces or other physical stimuli while eye-tracking hardware records their gaze. SmartGaze is intended to automate the analysis step: researchers define areas of interest (AOIs), such as a package label or a particular design element, and the system codes attention to those areas.

ParallelDots’ product page, dated 2023, describes the service for package-design testing, shopper research and UX research using wearable glasses. The page says project turnaround can fall from weeks to a few hours. That is a vendor description, not a guarantee for every study or project size.

What SmartGaze reports

ParallelDots lists visual outputs and AOI-level metrics for understanding where attention went and when. The named outputs include:

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  • Heatmaps: color-coded visualizations of where participants looked.
  • AOI metrics: time to first fixation (TTFF), time spent, fixation counts, ratio, re-visitors and revisits for defined areas.
  • Gaze plots: visual traces of gaze movement through a stimulus.
  • Markers and export: event markers and data export for custom analysis.

These outputs can help researchers compare attention across package or interface elements. They are measures of visual attention, not by themselves proof of preference, comprehension, purchase intent or usability; interpretation depends on the study design and other evidence.

How the workflow is described

  1. Record the study: capture gaze data with eye-tracking hardware while participants complete the physical viewing task.
  2. Define AOIs: identify the regions or elements whose attention should be measured.
  3. Code gaze: SmartGaze analyzes the recorded gaze and associates attention with the AOIs.
  4. Review and export: inspect heatmaps, metrics, plots and markers, then export data for further analysis.

A 2019 ParallelDots-authored explainer says Smart-Gaze uses a deep-neural-network architecture to analyze raw gaze videos and learns what key AOIs look like. It also describes a managed workflow in which a client supplied raw videos and AOIs and the ParallelDots team returned coded data in about three days. That account is historical: it does not establish the current service process, turnaround, supported file formats or whether customers can use the product themselves.

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How SmartGaze differs from gaze tools for software coding

“Coding” in SmartGaze refers to coding gaze data for research. A different line of work uses eye tracking in software development—for example, to map a programmer’s gaze to code, navigate an IDE or share attention with a remote collaborator.

Tool or project Primary job Input and output described by its source
SmartGaze (ParallelDots, product page dated 2023) Automate gaze coding for physical eye-tracking research Wearable/physical eye-tracking studies; AOI metrics, heatmaps, gaze plots, markers and export
CodeGRITS (repository; ICSE-Companion 2024 publication cited) Support empirical software-engineering studies in JetBrains IDEs Records IDE interactions and eye gaze, maps gaze to source-code elements and exports XML; repository says it supports Windows, macOS and Linux and Tobii eye-tracking devices
CodeGazer (University of Bath REVEAL project) Prototype gaze-based navigation in code Gaze commands for Go to Definition, Find All Usages, file and method navigation, back/forward navigation and scrolling
WEye (Microsoft Research) Visualize a remote pair programmer’s gaze during collaborative coding Shows where a partner is looking in code and changes color when both are looking at the same location

CodeGRITS: mapping gaze to code

CodeGRITS is an open-source research toolkit rather than an automated market-research coding service. Its repository describes recording IDE interactions and gaze, linking gaze to source-code elements, and exporting XML. The stated operating-system and Tobii support apply to the toolkit as described in that repository; they do not establish compatibility with SmartGaze.

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CodeGazer: using gaze as an IDE command

The University of Bath REVEAL project describes CodeGazer as a prototype for code navigation with gaze. Its project summary reports that many study participants liked or preferred gaze navigation, particularly Go to Definition, and that completion time compared well with traditional methods. Those findings concern the prototype and study described by the project, not all programmers or IDE workflows.

WEye: sharing attention in pair programming

Microsoft Research reports that WEye visualizes a remote partner’s gaze and highlights when both programmers look at the same code. In a refactoring experiment, pairs spent more time looking concurrently at the same code locations and were faster and more successful at responding to references. This is evidence about that collaboration experiment, not a validation of SmartGaze’s gaze-coding claims.

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Gaze in AI-assisted IDEs

A 2025 UC Berkeley student-project summary examined gaze patterns in AI-assisted IDE tasks. It reports that use of the AI chat window varied by task and that intermediate and expert programmers showed different code-chat switching patterns. The summary is contextual evidence about observed interaction patterns, not a general claim that gaze or AI assistance improves productivity.

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What the reported efficiency figures mean

ParallelDots’ 2023 product page reports an 85% reduction in time, a 40% reduction in costs and a 60% increase in efficiency. These are vendor-reported figures; the page’s claims are not independent benchmarks, and the available description does not establish the study conditions or a common baseline that would let readers apply the percentages to a particular project.

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Hardware, availability and practical checks

The product description positions SmartGaze for studies using wearable eye-tracking glasses, but the sources described here do not identify supported models or technical requirements. CodeGRITS separately names Tobii devices for its own research workflow; that is not evidence that SmartGaze supports every Tobii device—or any specific model.

ParallelDots’ product page is the strongest current product description among the cited material, but current pricing, self-serve access, service availability and partner terms are not established in the available sources. Before planning a study around SmartGaze, confirm the following directly with ParallelDots:

  • Whether the service is currently available for your region and research use case.
  • Which eye-tracking hardware, video formats and data inputs it accepts.
  • Whether AOIs and coding are configured by your team or handled as a managed service.
  • What outputs, delivery times, pricing and data-handling terms apply to your project.

Which kind of gaze tool fits the question?

  • Choose the SmartGaze category when the question is how participants visually attend to package, shopper or UX stimuli and you need AOI-oriented coding and analysis.
  • Look at CodeGRITS when the goal is to collect gaze and IDE interaction data for software-engineering research and connect gaze to source-code elements.
  • Look at CodeGazer-style prototypes when investigating gaze as a way to issue navigation commands in an IDE.
  • Look at WEye-style visualization when the research question concerns shared attention between remote pair programmers.

These tools address different tasks and rely on different workflows. SmartGaze’s reported efficiency percentages should not be used to compare its performance with academic IDE tools: the claims describe different products and are not supported by a common evaluation.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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