GazeEverywhere: Enabling Gaze-only User Interaction on an Unmodified Desktop PC in Everyday Scenarios

Eye tracking is becoming more and more affordable, and thus gaze has the potential to become a viable input modality for human-computer interaction. We present the GazeEverywhere solution that can replace the mouse with gaze control by adding a transparent layer on top of the system GUI. It comprises three parts: i) the SPOCK interaction method that is based on smooth pursuit eye movements and does not suffer from the Midas touch problem; ii) an online recalibration algorithm that continuously improves gaze-tracking accuracy using the SPOCK target projections as reference points; and iii) an optional hardware setup utilizing head-up display technology to project superimposed dynamic stimuli onto the PC screen where a software modification of the system is not feasible. In validation experiments, we show that GazeEverywhere's throughput according to ISO 9241-9 was improved over dwell time based interaction methods and nearly reached trackpad level. Online recalibration reduced interaction target ('button') size by about 25%. Finally, a case study showed that users were able to browse the internet and successfully run Wikirace using gaze only, without any plug-ins or other modifications.

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