Eye gaze in virtual environments: evaluating the need and initial work on implementation

Murray, N; Roberts, D; Steed, AP; Sharkey, P; Dickerson, P; Rae, J; Wolff, R

Abstract

For efficient collaboration between participants, eye gaze is seen as being critical for interaction. Video
conferencing either does not attempt to support eye gaze (e.g. AcessGrid) or only approximates it in round
table conditions (e.g. life size telepresence). Immersive collaborative virtual environments represent remote
participants through avatars that follow their tracked movements. By additionally tracking people’s eyes
and representing their movement on their avatars, the line of gaze can be faithfully reproduced, as opposed
to approximated. This paper presents the results of initial work that tested if the focus of gaze could be
more accurately gauged if tracked eye movement was added to that of the head of an avatar observed in
an immersive VE. An experiment was conducted to assess the difference between user’s abilities to judge
what objects an avatar is looking at with only head movements being displayed, while the eyes remained
static, and with eye gaze and head movement information being displayed. The results from the experiment
show that eye gaze is of vital importance to the subjects correctly identifying what a person is looking
at in an immersive virtual environment. This is followed by a description of the work that is now being
undertaken following the positive results from the experiment.We discuss the integration of an eye tracker
more suitable for immersive mobile use and the software and techniques that were developed to integrate
the user’s real-world eye movements into calibrated eye gaze in an immersive virtual world. This is to be used in the creation of an immersive collaborative virtual environment supporting eye gaze and its
ongoing experiments.

Citation

Murray, N., Roberts, D., Steed, A., Sharkey, P., Dickerson, P., Rae, J., & Wolff, R. (2009). Eye gaze in virtual environments: evaluating the need and initial work on implementation. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 21(11), 1437-1449. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.1396

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Aug 10, 2009
• Deposit Date: Oct 24, 2011
• Journal: Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience
• Print ISSN: 1532-0626
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 1437-1449
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.1396
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cpe.1396