Human eyes play an important role in everyday social interactions. However, the cues provided by eye movements are often missing or difficult to interpret in computer-mediated remote collaboration. Motivated by the increasing availability of gaze-tracking devices in the consumer market and the growing need for improved remotecollaboration systems, this thesis evaluated the value of gaze awareness in a number of video-based remote-collaboration situations.
This thesis comprises six publications which enhance our understanding of the everyday use of gaze-tracking technology and the value of shared gaze to remote collaborations in the physical world. The studies focused on a variety of collaborative scenarios involving different camera configurations (stationary, handheld, and head-mounted cameras), display setups (screen-based and projection displays), mobility requirements (stationary and mobile tasks), and task characteristics (pointing and procedural tasks). The aim was to understand the costs and benefits of shared gaze in video-based collaborative physical tasks.
The findings suggest that gaze awareness is useful in remote collaboration for physical tasks. Shared gaze enables efficient communication of spatial information, helps viewers to predict task-relevant intentions, and enables improved situational awareness. However, different contextual factors can influence the utility of shared gaze. Shared gaze was more useful when the collaborative task involved communicating pointing information instead of procedural information, the collaborators were mutually aware of the shared gaze, and the quality of gaze-tracking was accurate enough to meet the task requirements. In addition, the results suggest that the collaborators’ roles can also affect the perceived utility of shared gaze.
Methodologically, this thesis sets a precedent in shared gaze research by reporting the objective gaze data quality achieved in the studies and also provides tools for other researchers to objectively view gaze data quality in different research phases.
The findings of this thesis can contribute towards designing future remote-collaboration systems; towards the vision of pervasive gaze-based interaction; and towards improved validity, repeatability, and comparability of research involving gaze trackers
