Headtracking as an empirical method for researching user behavior in the planetarium

Presentation theme: fulldome and educational advances in planetariums

This presentation introduces a new methodology for researching media reception processes in the planetarium. Other known methods such as eye-tracking have considerable weaknesses when used in the planetarium and cannot provide complete or reliable results for the reception of stimuli in the dome. The head tracking method developed and tested here can record head movements during the reception of fulldome stimuli inside of a planetarium, allowing to collect objective and quantifiable information about visitors ́reception behavior. In combination with other methods, e.g. a questionnaire, the results of head tracking can also allow conclusions to be drawn about which content in the dome has attracted attention and has been cognitively processed. Since knowledge transfer is a key concept for most fulldome content, we should know how content is received and processed by recipients in immersive environments to create knowledge growth. The objective of this research project is to investigate the relationship between fulldome image composition approaches (unidirectional vs. omnidirectional)and visual attention of a recipient in a planetarium. This experimental test setup of a master thesis examined the reception (head tracking) and memory (questionnaire) of 10 test subjects viewing a 5-minute fulldome sequence containing both image composition approaches of interest.