Where Is Waldo? - Visual Search Behavior in �Wimmelpictures�

In order to explore an image, the human eye functions like a spotlight, scanning
the content from one object to the next. This visual search behavior is
implemented with the help of attention control. The following work surveys
the visual search behavior in “Wimmelpictures”, a special type of busy pictures.
The research objective is to analyze different search strategies and to
work out possible differences concerning age and gender. The university experiment
is carried out by an eye tracker that records the fixations and saccades
of the test persons. The results indicate three forms of search strategy:
based on a pattern, based on feature selection, or a mixture of both. Our data
shows the search for special features of the target is the most successful. Furthermore
there are no differences concerning gender but some concerning
age. All age groups need more time to locate the target with an increasing
number of distractors in the image. The size of the target is also relevant as a
larger target is found more quickly than the smaller one.