Eye trackers in a virtual laparoscopic training environment.

Virtual laparoscopic training systems have been shown to differentiate between the skills of experienced and novice laparoscopic surgeons. Measures such as total number of errors and completion time are used to assess skill, but these metrics do not give much insight into the processes behind skilled behavior in simulated laparoscopic tasks. The eye gaze of 2 groups of subjects, one experienced with laparoscopic surgery, and the other with no experience, was recorded while they performed an aiming task in a virtual laparoscopic trainer. The experienced subject committed much lower number of errors than the novices. Initial analysis of the eye data showed that the novice group tended to gaze on the tool they are controlling more often than the experienced subject.