Evaluation of the Potential of Gaze Input for Game Interaction

To evaluate the potential of gaze input for game interaction, we used two tasks commonly found in video game control, target acquisition and target tracking, in a set of two experiments. In the first experiment, we compared the target acquisition and target tracking performance of two eye trackers with four other input devices. Gaze input had a similar performance to the mouse for big targets, and better performance than a joystick, a device often used in gaming. In the second experiment, we compared target acquisition performance using either gaze or mouse for pointing, and either a mouse button or an EMG switch for clicking. The hands-free gaze-EMG input combination was faster than the mouse while maintaining a similar error rate. Our results suggest that there is a potential for gaze input in game interaction, given a sufficiently accurate and responsive eye tracker and a well-designed interface.

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