Autoethnography of invention

Abstract

Autoethnography of Invention is my firsthand account of the period from December of 2009 through March of 2011, during which I helped invent a new, low-cost eye tracking technology. Eye tracking allows researchers to record where people are looking; it also allows people to move a computer's mouse cursor with their eyes.

Unable to afford commercial eye tracking products on the market in early 2010, my partners and I in the Usability Research Laboratory in the Department of English at Texas Tech University set out to create our own eye tracking hardware and software. The technology we developed later went to market as the EyeGuide series of eye tracking products.

As a technical communicator, it was my job to translate the already existing work on low-cost eye tracking into a more usable form. As a rhetorician, it was my job to analyze audiences in different contexts and to adjust my arguments accordingly; in particular, I worked with stakeholders inside and outside of my university, department, and usability lab in order to ensure that my work would reach the widest possible audience.

Description

Keywords

Autoethnography, Invention, Eye tracking, Technical communication, Rhetoric

Citation