I build virtual worlds and measure how people see them.
A simulated reading scanpath. Each circle is a fixation, sized by how long the eye rests there.
I'm Dalton Salvo, PhD, a UX and human-factors researcher who specializes in eye tracking. I design immersive environments in Unreal Engine, then collect and analyze what people's eyes and bodies do inside them, from study design through the statistics.
What I do
Human data collection
I design within-subject studies that capture several signals at once: gaze direction, fixations and eye closure, heart rate, EEG, headset motion, observation video and self-report surveys.
Eye trackers in VR headsets, webcam and phone-camera gaze estimation, EEG, survey design
Analysis that holds up
I synchronize clocks across devices, build gaze-overlay video and heatmaps, and test effects with permutation methods sized for small samples. I report the null results too.
Python, within-participant Monte Carlo tests, Spearman correlation, qualitative coding
Virtual world design
I build the environments people are studied in: multiplayer, cross-platform worlds with dedicated servers, spatial voice and hardware-aware graphics.
Unreal Engine 5, C++, Blueprints, AWS GameLift, macOS and Windows packaging
Selected work
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Reading boredom in the eyes
Participants watched films in a VR headset while I recorded their eyes, brain activity and movement. Where their gaze drifted from the screen predicted how bored they later said they were.
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A virtual campus for a UC-wide course
A multiplayer world where more than 240 engineering students have met in groups, watched clinical procedure videos together and talked with spatial voice chat.
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FocusTracker In development
An iPhone app that measures attention through the front camera, with every computation on the phone. It brings eye tracking out of the lab and onto hardware people already own.
How a study runs
Frame the question
Turn a product or research question into something a body can answer.
Build the environment
Design the virtual world or stimulus so the conditions differ only where they should.
Collect signals
Record gaze, physiology, motion and self-report on one shared clock.
Analyze
Test within each person, keep what reaches significance and say what doesn't.
Report
Deliver findings a team can act on, with overlays and figures that show the evidence.
Where this applies
UX research and human factors
Measure where attention actually goes in an interface or an environment, rather than relying only on what users say afterward.
Ad and video evaluation
Gaze and eye closure can flag disengagement while it happens. That makes them candidate signals for evaluating creative and for ad delivery that adapts to attention.
XR products
Headset eye tracking is now standard hardware. I know how to turn its output into design decisions, and how to build the worlds that use it.
Learning technology
I've deployed a virtual learning environment to real students and studied how they used it, including where the design and their habits diverged.
Contact
I'm looking for UX research, human-factors and technical research roles. Email is the best way to reach me.