Gaze window: A new gaze interface showing relevant content close to the gaze point

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a novel concept of the gaze window, which follows the user's gaze to show relevant information close to their gaze point on a screen space. We explore the use of a gaze window, especially for two use cases: (1) a single‐user data entry task by displaying data‐source image close to the gaze point where the data are typed in and (2) a teleconferencing setup showing a remote partner close to the gaze point. To investigate the performance of gaze window in these cases, we conducted two experiments. For the single‐user task, we compared the gaze window with a baseline non‐gaze‐window condition and found that the gaze window significantly reduced the user's gaze movement and mental effort and increased usability. In the teleconferencing task, we compared displaying partner close to gaze point in the gaze window to displaying partner at the corner of screen, when two remote users watch a shared and synchronized content together. We found that displaying the partner's face nearby the user's gaze helped the user look at the partner more frequently, and for a longer time, significantly increasing co‐presence and emotional interdependence. As a result of this research, we also presented design guidelines for gaze‐window systems.