Howell O. Istance

Why are eye mice unpopular? A detailed comparison of head and eye controlled assistive technology pointing devices

This paper examines and compares the usability problems associated with eye-based and head-based assistive technology pointing devices when used for direct manipulation on a standard graphical user interface. It discusses and examines the pros and cons of eye-based pointing in comparison to the established assistive technology technique of head-based pointing and illustrates the usability factors responsible for the apparent low usage or ‘unpopularity’ of eye-based pointing. It shows that user experience and target size on the interface are the predominant factors affecting eye-based pointing and suggests that these could be overcome to enable eye-based pointing to be a viable and available direct manipulation interaction technique for the motor-disabled community.

Designing gaze gestures for gaming: an investigation of performance

To enable people with motor impairments to use gaze control to play online games and take part in virtual communities, new interaction techniques are needed that overcome the limitations of dwell clicking on icons in the games interface. We have investigated gaze gestures as a means of achieving this. We report the results of an experiment with 24 participants that examined performance differences between different gestures. We were able to predict the effect on performance of the numbers of legs in the gesture and the primary direction of eye movement in a gesture. We also report the outcomes of user trials in which 12 experienced gamers used the gaze gesture interface to play World of Warcraft. All participants were able to move around and engage other characters in fighting episodes successfully. Gestures were good for issuing specific commands such as spell casting, and less good for continuous control of movement compared with other gaze interaction techniques we have developed.

Gaze gestures or dwell-based interaction?

The two cardinal problems recognized with gaze-based interaction techniques are: how to avoid unintentional commands, and how to overcome the limited accuracy of eye tracking. Gaze gestures are a relatively new technique for giving commands, which has the potential to overcome these problems. We present a study that compares gaze gestures with dwell selection as an interaction technique. The study involved 12 participants and was performed in the context of using an actual application. The participants gave commands to a 3D immersive game using gaze gestures and dwell icons. We found that gaze gestures are not only a feasible means of issuing commands in the course of game play, but they also exhibited performance that was at least as good as or better than dwell selections. The gesture condition produced less than half of the errors when compared with the dwell condition. The study shows that gestures provide a robust alternative to dwell-based interaction with the reliance on positional accuracy being substantially reduced.

For Your Eyes Only: Controlling 3D Online Games by Eye-Gaze

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, have become the most widespread 3D graphical environments with millions of active subscribers worldwide. People with severe motor impairments should be able to take part in these games without the extent of their disability being apparent to others online. Eye gaze is a high bandwidth modality that can support this. We have developed a software device that uses gaze input in different modes for emulating mouse and keyboard events appropriate for interacting with on-line games. We report an evaluation study that investigated gaze-based interaction with World of Warcraft using the device. We have found that it is feasible to carry out tasks representative of game play at a beginners skill level using gaze alone. The results from the locomotion task part of the study show similar performance for gaze-based interaction compared with a keyboard and mouse. We discuss the usability issues that arose when completing three types of tasks in the game and the implications of these for playing of this type of game using gaze as the only input modality.

Introducing COGAIN: communication by gaze interaction

This paper introduces the work of the COGAIN “communication by gaze interaction” European Network of Excellence that is working toward giving people with profound disabilities the opportunity to communicate and control their environment by eye gaze control. It shows the need for developing eye gaze based communication systems, and illustrates the effectiveness of newly developed COGAIN eye gaze control systems with a series of case studies, each showing differing aspects of the benefits offered by gaze control. Finally, the paper puts forward a strong case for users, professionals and researchers to collaborate towards developing gaze based communication systems to enable and empower people with disabilities.

Gaze-based interaction with massively multiplayer on-line games

People with motor impairments can benefit greatly from being able to take part in Massively Multiplayer On-line Games, such as World of Warcraft. We are investigating how to use eye gaze as a high bandwidth input modality for the range of tasks necessary to participate in the game. We approach this from two directions; in the bottom-up approach we iteratively implement and eva-luate various gaze-interaction techniques, and in the top-down approach we analyze the interaction in MMOGs and develop a theory to map games tasks to gaze-based interaction techniques. We present preliminary results from a recently conducted set of trials which have studied how well tasks in World of Warcraft can be carried out using gaze only. We describe this in the context of the whole project.

Gaze interaction with virtual on-line communities: levelling the playing field for disabled users

This paper introduces the concept of enabling gaze-based interaction for users with high-level motor disabilities to control an avatar in a first-person perspective on-line community. An example community, Second Life, is introduced that could offer disabled users the same virtual freedom as any other user, and so allow disabled users to be able-bodied (should they wish) within the virtual world. A survey of the control demands for Second Life and a subsequent preliminary experiment show that gaze control has inherent problems particularly for locomotion and camera movement. These problems result in a lack of effective gaze control of Second Life, such that control is not practical and show that disabled users who interact using gaze will have difficulties in controlling Second Life (and similar environments). This suggests that these users could once again become disabled in the virtual world by the difficulties in effectively controlling their avatars, and their ‘disability privacy’, or the right to control an avatar as effectively as an able bodied user, and so appear virtually able bodied, will be compromised. Methods for overcoming these difficulties such as the use of gaze aware on-screen assistive tools could overcome these problems, but games manufacturers must design inclusively, so that disabled users may have the right to disability privacy in their Second (virtual) Lives.

Towards eye based virtual environment interaction for users with high-level motor disabilities

An experiment is reported that extends earlier work on the enhancement of eye pointing in 2D environments, through the addition of a zoom facility, to its use in virtual 3D environments using a similar enhancement. A comparison between hand pointing and eye pointing without any enhancement shows a performance advantage for hand based pointing. However, the addition of a ‘fly’ or ‘zoom’ enhancement increases both eye and hand based performance, and reduces greatly the difference between these devices. Initial attempts at ‘intelligent’ fly mechanisms and further enhancements are evaluated.

Attentive interfaces for users with disabilities: eye gaze for intention and uncertainty estimation

Attentive user interfaces (AUIs) capitalize on the rich information that can be obtained from users’ gaze behavior in order to infer relevant aspects of their cognitive state. Not only is eye gaze an excellent clue to states of interest and intention, but also to preference and confidence in comprehension. AUIs are built with the aim of adapting the interface to the user’s current information need, and thus reduce workload of interaction. Given those characteristics, it is believed that AUIs can have particular benefits for users with severe disabilities, for whom operating a physical device (like a mouse pointer) might be very strenuous or infeasible. This paper presents three studies that attempt to gauge uncertainty and intention on the part of the user from gaze data, and compare the success of each approach. The paper discusses how the application of the approaches adopted in each study to user interfaces can support users with severe disabilities.

Gaze-Aware Systems and Attentive Applications

Gaze Interaction and Applications of Eye Tracking: Advances in Assistive Technologies focuses on interactive communication and control tools based on gaze tracking, including eye typing, computer control, and gaming, with special attention to assistive technologies. For researchers and practitioners interested in the applied use of gaze tracking, the book offers instructions for building a basic eye tracker from off-the-shelf components, gives practical hints on building interactive applications, presents smooth and efficient interaction techniques, and summarizes the results of effective research on cutting edge gaze interaction applications.