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College of Information and Communications

  • A male student inside the Baux Lab wearing the eyetracking software.

Biometrics and User Experience Lab

Housed in Davis College, the Biometrics and User Experience (BaUX) Lab is a multi-purpose research facility with multi-disciplinary-foci, including advertising and marketing communication, health communication, human-technology interaction, social media, journalism, to name a few. The BaUX Lab serves as a collaborative space for interdisciplinary groups of faculty, students, community partners, and industry professionals to examine psychophysiological responses to media content and other user experiences.

Lab Capabilities

The BaUX Lab has a unique set of cutting-edge technologies to track facial expressions, eye movement, sweat gland stimulation and neuroelectrical activity.

Screen-based Eye Tracking
Uses near-infrared technology and an HD camera to track gaze direction and quantifies the visual attention on images, videos, websites, games, software interfaces and mobile phones.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Allows researchers to understand how respondents view and interact in the real, dynamic world beyond the restriction in the lab settings.

Facial Expression
Measures human emotions through computer-based facial coding, including seven core emotions (happy, sad, etc.) and 21 facial action units (brow furrow, jaw drop, etc.).

Galvanic Skin Response
Measures the electrical activity conducted through sweat glands in the skin, which are triggered by emotional stimulation.

Electroencephalography
Measures electrical activity on the scalp associated with perception, cognition and emotional processes.

Research

Current faculty research projects focus on human-computer interaction, message persuasion, social media communication, citizen-compared-to-staff photojournalism, and health communication.

Student groups are also benefitting from the lab, including the Ad Team, which used the technology to prepare for the 2020 National Student Advertising Competition. The team took second place.

Undergraduate and graduate courses may be taught in the lab, and students may also access it by assisting with faculty research projects.

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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