A visual search model: The waiting time distribution of the number of fixations until detection

Visual search is an important aspect of human tasks in industrial and military applications. Physically, a visual search process consists of a sequence of eye fixations. It has been hypothesized, based on search patterns found in early studies, that it is possible for fixations to follow both random and systematic patterns. Some early research works have been done in visual search. Analysis of human visual search involves examining experimental data and fitting the search time distribution. Some investigations have found that search times are described well by exponential distribution. This article discusses a visual search performance model based on derived search time distributions. The investigation of such a model is helpful in computing the probability of detecting a target, given a specified duration of search.