GazeTorch: Enabling Gaze Awareness in Collaborative Physical Tasks

We present GazeTorch, a novel interface that provides gaze awareness during remote collaboration on physical tasks. GazeTorch uses a spotlight to display gaze information of the remote helper on the physical task space of the worker. We conducted a preliminary user study to evaluate user's subjective opinion on the quality of collaboration, using GazeTorch and a camera-only setup. Our preliminary results suggest that the participants felt GazeTorch made collaboration easier, made referencing and identifying of objects effortless, and improved the worker's confidence that the task was completed accurately. We conclude by presenting some novel application scenarios for the concept of augmenting real-time gaze information in the physical world.

[1]  Sugata Mitra.  Remote Presence: Technologies for 'Beaming' Teachers Where They Cannot Go , 2009 .

[2]  Poika Isokoski,et al.  Gaze Augmentation in Egocentric Video Improves Awareness of Intention , 2016, CHI.

[3]  Shumin Zhai,et al.  RealTourist - A Study of Augmenting Human-Human and Human-Computer Dialogue with Eye-Gaze Overlay , 2005, INTERACT.

[4]  Roel Vertegaal,et al.  The GAZE groupware system: mediating joint attention in multiparty communication and collaboration , 1999, CHI '99.

[5]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Using Visual Information for Grounding and Awareness in Collaborative Tasks , 2012, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[6]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Effects of head-mounted and scene-oriented video systems on remote collaboration on physical tasks , 2003, CHI '03.

[7]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Gestures Over Video Streams to Support Remote Collaboration on Physical Tasks , 2004, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[8]  John C. Tang,et al.  Focusing on shared experiences: moving beyond the camera in video communication , 2012, DIS '12.

[9]  David S. Kirk,et al.  Comparing remote gesture technologies for supporting collaborative physical tasks , 2006, CHI.

[10]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  Gaze-Based Onlooker Integration: Exploring the In-Between of Active Player and Passive Spectator in Co-Located Gaming , 2015, CHI PLAY.

[11]  Zenzi M. Griffin,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article WHAT THE EYES SAY ABOUT SPEAKING , 2022 .

[12]  Christopher A. Dickinson,et al.  Coordinating cognition: The costs and benefits of shared gaze during collaborative search , 2008, Cognition.

[13]  Bilge Mutlu,et al.  Handheld or Handsfree?: Remote Collaboration via Lightweight Head-Mounted Displays and Handheld Devices , 2015, CSCW.