Chapter 22 – Voluntary Eye Movements in Human—Computer Interaction

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an overview on human–computer interaction (HCI) techniques that utilize voluntary eye movements for interaction with computers. The interaction among humans as well as interaction between human and computer can be classified as purely unimodal or multimodal. In unimodal interaction, communicative signals are transmitted through one modality only. An example of human unimodal interaction could be a discussion over the telephone, in which the sender uses speech only and the receiver uses hearing only. The chapter also explains interaction with computers. In multimodal interaction, communicative signals are transmitted through several different modalities. In comparison to human interaction, HCI is more limited in both input and output methods. Most systems allow inputs for a computer to be transmitted only through one modality and usually, this modality is the use of hands. This means that other possible input modalities that people use naturally in human–human interaction remains unused in HCI. However, it is possible to utilize other modalities in HCI too. Several different modalities, for example, speech, eye movements, and facial muscle activity, offer promising and interesting alternative methods to be used as an input for a computer. If the information from user to computer and vice versa could be transmitted through several modalities, this would conceivably result in more efficient, versatile, flexible, and eventually more natural interaction between the user and the computer, similar to human–human interaction.