Veronica Sundstedt

Gazing at games: using eye tracking to control virtual characters

Welcome to the course: Gazing at Games: Using Eye Tracking to Control Virtual Characters. I will start with a short introduction of the course which will give you an idea of its aims and structure. I will also talk a bit about my background and research interests and motivate why I think this work is important.

Real-Time Realistic Skin Translucency

A new algorithm renders real time, photorealistic skin by simulating both reflectance and transmittance of light through a multilayered skin model. Despite this models simplicity, it reproduces the look of images rendered with techniques such as photon mapping or diffusion approximation.

EyePlay: applications for gaze in games

What new challenges does the combination of games and eye-tracking present? The EyePlay workshop brings together researchers and industry specialists from the fields of eye-tracking and games to address this question. Eye-tracking been investigated extensively in a variety of domains in human-computer Interaction, but little attention has been given to its application for gaming. As eye-tracking technology is now an affordable commodity, its appeal as a sensing technology for games is set to become the driving force for novel methods of player-computer interaction and games evaluation. This workshop presents a forum for eye-based gaming research, with a focus on identifying the opportunities that eye-tracking brings to games design and research, on plotting the landscape of the work in this area, and on formalising a research agenda for EyePlay as a field. Possible topics are, but not limited to, novel interaction techniques and game mechanics, usability and evaluation, accessibility, learning, and serious games contexts.

Gazing at Games: An Introduction to Eye Tracking Control

Eye tracking is a process that identifies a specific point in both space and time that is being looked at by the observer. This information can also be used in real-time to control applications using the eyes. Recent innovations in the video game industry include alternative input modalities to provide an enhanced, more immersive user experience. In particular, eye gaze control has recently been explored as an input modality in video games. This book is an introduction for those interested in using eye tracking to control or analyze video games and virtual environments. Key concepts are illustrated through three case studies in which gaze control and voice recognition have been used in combination to control virtual characters and applications. The lessons learned in the case studies are presented and issues relating to incorporating eye tracking in interactive applications are discussed. The reader will be given an introduction to human visual attention, eye movements and eye tracking technologies. Previous work in the field of studying fixation behavior in games and using eye tracking for video game interaction will also be presented. The final chapter discusses ideas for how this field can be developed further to create richer interaction for characters and crowds in virtual environments. Alternative means of interaction in video games are especially important for disabled users for whom traditional techniques, such as mouse and keyboard, may be far from ideal. This book is also relevant for those wishing to use gaze control in applications other than games. Table of Contents: Introduction / The Human Visual System / Eye Tracking / Eye Tracking in Video Games / Gaze and Voice Controlled Video Games: Case Study I and II / Gaze and Voice Controlled Drawing: Case Study III / Conclusion

Crowd Light: Evaluating the Perceived Fidelity of Illuminated Dynamic Scenes

Rendering realistic illumination effects for complex animated scenes with many dynamic objects or characters is computationally expensive. Yet, it is not obvious how important such accurate lighting is for the overall perceived realism in these scenes. In this paper, we present a methodology to evaluate the perceived fidelity of illumination in scenes with dynamic aggregates, such as crowds, and explore several factors which may affect this perception. We focus in particular on evaluating how a popular spherical harmonics lighting method can be used to approximate realistic lighting of crowds. We conduct a series of psychophysical experiments to explore how a simple approach to approximating global illumination, using interpolation in the temporal domain, affects the perceived fidelity of dynamic scenes with high geometric, motion, and illumination complexity. We show that the complexity of the geometry and temporal properties of the crowd entities, the motion of the aggregate as a whole, the type of interpolation (i.e., of the direct and/or indirect illumination coefficients), and the presence or absence of colour all affect perceived fidelity. We show that high (i.e., above 75%) levels of perceived scene fidelity can be maintained while interpolating indirect illumination for intervals of up to 30 frames, resulting in a greater than three‐fold rendering speed‐up.

Using eye tracking for interaction

The development of cheaper eye trackers and open source software for eye tracking and gaze interaction brings the possibility to integrate eye tracking into everyday use devices as well as highly specialized equipment. Apart from providing means for analyzing eye movements, eye tracking also offers the possibility of a natural user interaction modality. Gaze control interfaces are already used within assistive applications for disabled users. However, this novel user interaction possibility comes with its own set of limitations and challenges. The aim of this SIG is to provide a forum for Designers, Researchers and Usability Professionals to discuss the role of eye tracking as a user interaction method in the future as well as the technical and user interaction challenges that using eye tracking as an interaction method brings.

Gaze interaction in the post-WIMP world

With continuous progression away from desktop to post-WIMP applications, including multi-touch, gestural, or tangible interaction, there is high potential for eye gaze as a more natural human-computer interface in numerous contexts. Examples include attention-aware adaptations or the combination of gaze and hand gestures for interaction with distant displays.n This SIG meeting provides a discussion venue for researchers and practitioners interested in gaze interaction in the post-WIMP era. We wish to draw attention to this emerging field and eventually formulate fundamental research questions. We will discuss the potential of gaze interaction for diverse application areas, interaction tasks, and multimodal user interface combinations. Our aims are to promote this research field, foster a larger research community, and establish the basis for a workshop at CHI 2013.

Exploring peripheral LOD change detections during interactive gaming tasks

Computer games require players to interact with scenes while performing various tasks. In this paper an experimental game framework was developed to measure players perception to level of detail (LOD) changes in 3D models (for example a bunny), as shown in Figure 1. These models were unrelated to the task assigned to the player and located away from the area in which the task was being accomplished. An interactive task, such as a point and shoot game, triggers a top-down vision process. Performing a specific task can result in inattentional blindness (IB) for the player, which is the phenomenon of not being able to perceive things that are in plain sight. IB can allow for substantial simplifications of the objects in the scene unrelated to the task at hand. In this paper five experiments were conducted exploring peripheral LOD change detections during an interactive gaming task. In three of the five experiments different level of awareness for the same task were tested and it was found that only participants being fully aware of the 3D LOD changes were able to detect about 15% of them during the game. In the other two experiments and with the players fully aware of the LOD changes, the distance at which they were able to detect each change of resolution was measured, with different number of LOD levels used in both experiments.

Possibilities and challenges with eye tracking in video games and virtual reality applications

Due to an increase in affordable, reliable and non-intrusive eye trackers the technology has recently been used by the video game industry. This course offers participants the opportunity to get an update on research and developments in gaze-based interaction techniques in combination with other sensors. The course consists of three parts: (1) a review of eye tracking analysis and interaction in video games and virtual reality applications, (2) possibilities and challenges with gaze-based interaction, and (3) lessons learned from developing a commercial video game application using eye tracking along with alternative virtual reality technologies. This course is relevant for everyone who is interested in developing games that use eye tracking as an interaction device. The content is suitable for beginners or experienced delegates who want to learn more about the state of the art and future possibilities in eye tracking combined with other sensors as interaction devices. We believe that games and virtual reality applications have just started to incorporate these new techniques and further research and developments are needed in order to evaluate novel ways to enhance gameplay.

Distinctive Approaches to Computer Graphics Education

This paper presents the latest advances and research in Computer Graphics education in a nutshell. It is concerned with topics that were presented at the Education Track of the Eurographics Conference held in Lisbon in 2016. We describe works corresponding to approaches to Computer Graphics education that are unconventional in some way and attempt to tackle unsolved problems and challenges regarding the role of arts in computer graphics education, the role of research‐oriented activities in undergraduate education and the interaction among different areas of Computer Graphics, as well as their application to courses or extra‐curricular activities. We present related works addressing these topics and report experiences, successes and issues in implementing the approaches.