Objective Eye tracking technology was initially widely applied in fields such as medicine, education, transportation, and human-computer interaction. Subsequently, it gradually found its way into geography, tourism, and landscape research. This technology can collect and analyze behavioral data of individuals in landscape environments, revealing the inherent correlation between visual attention and spatial features. In the field of landscape architecture, eye tracking technology is primarily used for landscape evaluation and perception, yielding numerous outcomes. However, there is a lack of systematic research on the hotspots and trends of eye tracking technology in landscape architecture. This research reviews and summarizes the current application status of this technology in landscape architecture research, aiming to provide a reference for future landscape architecture research based on eye tracking technology.

Method In this research, CiteSpace software is employed for bibliometric analysis and construction of visual knowledge map in an effort to figure out the development trends, disciplinary distribution characteristics, and keyword clustering of eye tracking technology. The research aims to explore the evolutionary trends, dynamics, hotspots, and frontiers of eye tracking technology in the field of landscape architecture research, thereby revealing the overall development status of relevant researches. The English literature data are sourced from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection. The retrieval uses the following query: “TS = (eye movement OR eye tracking) AND (landscape OR visual landscape preference) AND (visual attention OR perception).” The document type selected for retrieval is “article (academic journal paper)”, and the articles retrieved are mainly designed to adequately reflect the characteristics and development trends of the research topic. The retrieval of English literature was conducted on May 10, 2023, with the literature retrieved spanning the period from 2000 to 2022 and a total of 98 articles meeting the specified criteria being retrieved. Chinese literature data are obtained from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The retrieval uses the keywords “eye tracking” AND “landscape” OR “landscape architecture”, focusing on article titles. The retrieval of Chinese literature was conducted on May 10, 2023, covering academic journal papers published during the period from 2000 and 2022, with a total of 105 articles meeting the specified criteria being retrieved.

Results The research uses CiteSpace to integrate high-frequency keywords and keyword clustering. By combining the authority and latest literature of representative scholars within each cluster, the foreign research direction of eye tracking technology in landscape architecture is summarized as landscape perception and therapeutic landscape. Meanwhile, the domestic research focuses on eye tracking technology in landscape architecture include landscape perception, landscape evaluation, and therapeutic landscape. The research on therapeutic landscape primarily focuses on the positive impact of the environment on human stress recovery and attention fatigue improvement. In existing researches, eye tracking technology primarily records the visual attention characteristics of individuals in natural environments or urban settings dominated by natural elements, and analyzes the therapeutic effects of different environments. In landscape perception research, eye tracking technology is primarily employed to explore differences between various landscape types, such as urban or natural landscape. It is also used to investigate the impact of the quantity and design techniques of different elements within similar landscapes on landscape perception. Landscape evaluation is the outcome of the interaction between evaluators’ psychological activities and the quality of landscape, which entails evaluators to make value judgments on the external and functional aspects of landscape based on visual perception. In the future, landscape architecture research based on eye tracking technology may pay more attention to the following three aspects. 1) Expansion of the interdisciplinary integration scope of the research on eye tracking technology. Eye tracking technology can be applied in areas such as ecological perception, making it possible to evaluate the reactions of different populations to ecological landscape, identify the change trends of ecological environments, and thus optimize ecological environments. 2) Innovative research involving the combination of eye tracking technology with various other technologies. Eye tracking technology can synergize with physiological sensing technologies such as heart rate variability, magnetic resonance imaging, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. 3) Research on the application of eye tracking technology in the health research field. Future research may combine virtual reality technology, biofeedback technology, and other approaches to obtain more comprehensive empirical data support.

Conclusion This research summarizes the progress of landscape architecture research based on eye tracking technology, elucidating the key roles of eye tracking technology in the research on therapeutic landscape, landscape perception, landscape evaluation, etc. In the future, the research on landscape architecture based on eye tracking technology is expected to evolve into an interdisciplinary and technologically integrated research system.