Lexus - "Lexus IS 'Eyes will follow'"

The automotive world produces its fair share of eye-catching designs. But measuring any one car’s aesthetic appeal usually means relying on subjective impressions. For the 2017 update to the aggressively restyled Lexus IS, the automaker wants to let people’s eyes do the talking.

The idea is to equip viewers of the Lexus IS with eye-tracking glasses that can track and record their eye movements as they gaze at the sports sedan’s bold lines and striking contours.

“Unexpectedly, the idea came to us while we were neuro-testing a campaign for one of our other clients,” says Dominic Stallard, Executive Creative Director for Saatchi & Saatchi. “The technology and the research results it produced weren’t designed to be consumer-facing, but we found that the data it produced, although brutally honest, could be made surprisingly beautiful at the same time. We were really excited by the idea of using the technology to show people how they subconsciously saw the Lexus IS for the first time.”

While eye-tracking technology is used in a variety of different research fields, the goal is often the same: to trace and record someone’s gaze in the hopes of better understanding things like user intent and natural points of interest. Instead of relying purely on qualitative judgments and a participant’s imperfect memory, many eye-tracking systems—including the wearable one that has been used for this experiment—can instead create a kind of visual map of precisely where someone looked, for how long, and what they moved on to next.

During beta testing, the eye-tracking algorithms revealed a unique view of a bold, driver-centric sedan that’s clearly unafraid to stand out in a crowd. The more assertive take on the brand’s spindle grille was one clear point of viewer fixation, as were the more dramatic curves and sculpted brake air ducts fitted on selected Lexus IS model variants. The eye-tracking glasses revealed even relatively subtle design flourishes, like the sedan’s L-shaped multi-LED headlamps and angular exhaust pipes.

WIRED 02/2017