Eye Tracking Impact on Quality-of-Life of ALS Patients

Chronic neurological disorders in their advanced phase are characterized by a progressive loss of mobility (use of upper and lower limbs), speech and social life. Some of these pathologies, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis, are paradigmatic of these deficits. High technology communication instruments, such as eye tracking, can be an extremely important possibility to reintroduce these patients in their family and social life, in particular when they suffer severe disability. This paper reports and describes the results of an ongoing experimentation about Eye Tracking impact on the quality of life of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. The aim of the experimentation is to evaluate if and when eye tracking technologies have a positive impact on patients' live

Exploring the Sensed and Unexpected:Not Looking in Gaze Interaction

Gaze interaction paradigms rely on the user needing to look at objects in the interface to select them or trigger actions. ”Not looking” is an atypical and unexpected interaction to perform, but the eye-tracker can sense it. We illustrate the use of ”not looking” as an interaction dynamic with examples of gaze-enabled games. We created a framework containing a spectrum of five discrete categories for this unexpected use of gaze sensing. For each category, we analyse games that use gaze interaction and make the user look away from the game action up to the extent they close their eyes. The framework is described based on whether specific game events mean the player might not; cannot; should not; must not; or does not look. Finally, we discuss the outcomes of using unexpected gaze interactions and the potential of the proposed framework as a new approach to guide the design of sensing-based interfaces

Looking Outside the Box: Reflecting on Gaze Interaction in Gameplay

Gaze interaction in games moved from being a tool for accessibility to be at the core of mass-market game franchises, offering enhanced controller performance and greater immersion. We propose to explore three different popular gaze-based interaction mechanics to create novel opportunities in the game design space. We developed Twileyed, a collection of three games that challenge the "common" use of gaze as a pointer to navigate; select; and aim; to pose a challenging new way to play with the eyes. We used the games as data to reflect on the gaze design space. We asked users to play the games to validate them, and we observed their experience and strategies. Based on the observations, we discussed through 5 themes, the dimensions of gaze interactions and the potential outcomes to create engaging and playful gaze-enabled games. We contribute a position in gaze gameplay design, but also a conversation starter to engage the EyePlay research community

Assistive Technology and Applications: Independent living of severe motor disabled users

Some chronic degenerative diseases lead to communication problems and individual confinement. The progressive and total loss of motor functions induces in these patients anatrhria, i.e., inability of using the normal Augmentative and Alternative Communication systems (AAC), and also the impossibility of interacting with their surrounding environment. In patients affected by ALS and MS, even if other communication forms are damaged or lost, the ability of controlling eye movements is typically maintained. The eye trackers are able to determine the direction of the user's gaze and to use it as an input channel. Communication instruments based on eye-tracking are for some patients a possible solution, both to have a useful communication with family members or at longer distance, using Internet, and for the possibility to control the home environment using a computer controlled by their eye movements. This book tackles, even if in partial and limited way, the communication and independence needs of severe motor disabled person

Multimodal Gaze Interaction in 3D Virtual Environments

Nowadays the computer game industry is developing more and more innovative interaction and control methods for user inputs. Nevertheless Gaze tracking, that is a fast natural and intuitive input channel, is not exploited in any commercial computer game, yet. In recent years several research groups started to study gaze tracking devices applied to compute