Gaze Behavior Research Articles

Expert gaze as a usability indicator of medical AI decision support systems: a preliminary study

Given the current state of medical artificial intelligence (AI) and perceptions towards it, collaborative systems are becoming the preferred choice for clinical workflows. This work aims to address expert interaction with medical AI support systems to gain insight towards how these systems can be better designed with the user in mind. As eye tracking metrics have been shown to be robust indicators of usability, we employ them for evaluating the usability and user interaction with medical AI support systems. We use expert gaze to assess experts’ interaction with an AI software for caries detection in bitewing x-ray images. We compared standard viewing of bitewing images without AI support versus viewing where AI support could be freely toggled on and off. We found that experts turned the AI on for roughly 25% of the total inspection task, and generally turned it on halfway through the course of the inspection. Gaze behavior showed that when supported by AI, more attention was dedicated to user interface elements related to the AI support, with more frequent transitions from the image itself to these elements. When considering that expert visual strategy is already optimized for fast and effective image inspection, such interruptions in attention can lead to increased time needed for the overall assessment. Gaze analysis provided valuable insights into an AI’s usability for medical image inspection. Further analyses of these tools and how to delineate metrical measures of usability should be developed.

Evidence That Pervasive Body Gaze Behavior in Heterosexual Men Is a Social Marker for Implicit, Physiological, and Explicit Sexual Assault Propensities.

Deliberate and effortful attempts to gaze at the bodies of women is emerging as a valuable marker of sexual objectification in men. Some preliminary evidence suggests that pervasive body gaze behavior may also accompany insidious attitudes which can facilitate sexual assault. The present study aimed to further explore this potential by examining pervasive body gaze associations with explicit, implicit, and physiological sexual assault propensity measures. We presented 110 heterosexual male participants with images of fully and partially dressed women with and without injuries while measuring their skin conductance responses. We also captured implicit and explicit sexual assault measures in addition to self-reported pervasive body gaze behavior. Pervasive body gaze behavior was significantly correlated with rape myth acceptance attitudes, prior perpetration of sexual assault, a stronger implicit association between erotica and aggression, and lower physiological reactivity during exposure to partially dressed injured women. These findings suggest that body gaze towards women could be a behavioral marker for inclinations to victim blame, preferences for rough sexual conduct, and a physiological desensitization towards female victims. This study further validates a five item self-reported body gaze measure as a valuable tool for detecting deviant sexual objectification attitudes and affective states. As such, measurement and observation of body gaze behavior could be useful for developing risk assessments, estimating intervention efficacy, and enhancing public awareness.

Gaze behavior reveals automaticity and attention allocation during music teaching vs. observing.

In a unique case-study approach in which I served as both the research participant and the experimenter, I wore eye-tracking glasses while teaching a brief music lesson to two university students learning trumpet, then approximately two weeks later, I watched a video of the lesson and tracked my gaze again. To investigate unconscious perceptual processes engaged during music teaching, I compared my attention allocation while teaching to my attention allocation during selfobservation. My gaze behavior while teaching revealed a high level of automaticity regarding lesson sequencing and allocation of attention. Strategic moment-to-moment shifts in attention between the two students occurred entirely below my conscious awareness, yet post hoc analyses revealed precisely timed changes that were related to momentary goals. While watching the video, absent the demands of behavioral interaction and momentary decision-making, I directed more sustained attention to both students than I had while teaching. These results reveal important features of "teacher thinking" that are not directly observable or typically construed as conscious behavior. That this component of teaching practice does not involve volitional control suggests that teachers' descriptions of their thinking may not reveal to novices important elements of pedagogical expertise.

Gaze detection as a social cue to initiate natural human-robot collaboration in an assembly task.

Introduction: In this work we explore a potential approach to improve human-robot collaboration experience by adapting cobot behavior based on natural cues from the operator. Methods: Inspired by the literature on human-human interactions, we conducted a wizard-of-oz study to examine whether a gaze towards the cobot can serve as a trigger for initiating joint activities in collaborative sessions. In this study, 37 participants engaged in an assembly task while their gaze behavior was analyzed. We employed a gaze-based attention recognition model to identify when the participants look at the cobot. Results: Our results indicate that in most cases (83.74%), the joint activity is preceded by a gaze towards the cobot. Furthermore, during the entire assembly cycle, the participants tend to look at the cobot mostly around the time of the joint activity. Given the above results, a fully integrated system triggering joint action only when the gaze is directed towards the cobot was piloted with 10 volunteers, of which one characterized by high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. Even though they had never interacted with the robot and did not know about the gaze-based triggering system, most of them successfully collaborated with the cobot and reported a smooth and natural interaction experience. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the natural gaze behavior of participants working on a joint activity with a robot during a collaborative assembly task and to attempt the full integration of an automated gaze-based triggering system.

Evaluation of Instructors’ Demographic Variations on a Web-based Platform for Connecting with Practitioners

Exploration of demographic variations is required to develop dynamic web platforms that cater to the varying preferences of diverse users. Hence, this study evaluated instructors’ demographic variations on a web-based platform for connecting with practitioners for student development. Both objective and subjective measures were adopted to investigate age- and gender-related differences in gaze behavior, task completion time, perceived cognitive load, perceived usability, and trust. Compared to male instructors, female instructors had higher fixation counts, longer task completion times, and statistically significant longer fixation duration. Female instructors gave higher usability and trust ratings but reported a higher cognitive workload. Compared to Generation Y instructors, Generation X instructors had longer fixation duration, higher fixation count, and statistically longer task completion time. Generation X instructors reported high cognitive load, lower usability, and trust ratings. The study also reveals demographic differences in parameters that instructors focused on while connecting with practitioners via a web platform.

Fork in the road: How self-efficacy related to walking across terrain influences gaze behavior and path choice.

Decisions about where to move occur throughout the day and are essential to life. Different movements may present different challenges and affect the likelihood of achieving a goal. Certain choices may have unintended consequences, some of which may cause harm and bias the decision. Movement decisions rely on a person gathering necessary visual information via shifts in gaze. Here we sought to understand what influences this information-seeking gaze behavior. Participants chose between walking across one of two paths that consisted of terrain images found in either hiking or urban environments. We manipulated the number and type of terrain of each path, which altered the amount of available visual information. We recorded gaze behavior during the approach to the paths and had participants rate the confidence in their ability to walk across each terrain type (i.e., self-efficacy) as though it was real. Participants did not direct gaze more to the path with greater visual information, regardless of how we quantified information. Rather, we show that a person's perception of their motor abilities predicts how they visually explore the environment with their eyes as well as their choice of action. The greater the self-efficacy in walking across one path, the more they directed gaze to it and the more likely they chose to walk across it.

In the Eye of the Beholder-Visual Search Behavior in Equestrian Dressage Judges.

This study investigated the visual search behavior of equestrian dressage judges at different expertise levels during the assessment of Grand Prix horse-rider combinations. Twenty judges (11 foundational level, 9 advanced level) participated in the study, with their eye movements recorded using Tobii Fusion Eyetracker as they evaluated video recordings of dressage tests. Fixation metrics, namely Total Duration of Fixation (TDF), Average Duration of Fixation (ADF), and Total Number of Fixations (TNF), were analyzed across four Areas of Interest (AOIs): front, back, rider, and horse's feet. Statistical analysis utilized linear mixed-effects models. Results demonstrated that judges consistently focused more on the front of the horse, with additional differences in fixation duration and frequency based on judge experience and specific movements. Advanced judges focused more on the horses' feet, suggesting they draw meaning from specific areas indicative of performance quality. Conversely, foundational level judges focused more on the rider, reflecting different evaluative priorities at lower levels of the sport. These findings suggest that judges focus on a limited number of highly relevant areas, differing across movements and expertise levels. The study underscores the necessity of understanding both gaze behavior and subsequent interpretations of visual information to increase judging transparency, fairness, and equine welfare.

How do referees visually explore? An in-situ examination of the referential head and eye movements of football referees

ABSTRACT The majority of a football referee’s time is spent assessing open-play situations, yet little is known about how referees search for information during this uninterrupted play. The aim of the current study was to examine the exploratory gaze behaviour of elite and sub-elite football referees in open-play game situations. Four elite (i.e. national) and eight sub-elite (i.e. regional) referees officiated an in-situ football match while wearing a mobile eye-tracker to assess their gaze behaviour. Both referential head and eye movements (i.e. moving gaze away from and then back to the ball) were measured. Results showed gaze behaviour was characterised overall by more referential head than eye movements (~75 vs 25%), which were of longer duration (~950 vs 460 ms). Moreover, elite referees employed faster referential movements (~640 vs 730 ms), spending less time with their gaze away from the ball (carrier) than the sub-elite referees. Crucially, both the referential head and eye movements were coordinated relative to key events in the match, in this case passes, showing that referees anticipate the passes to ensure that the referential movements did not occur during passes, rather before or after. The results further our understanding of the coordinative gaze behaviours that underpin expertise in officiating.

Real-Time Multi-Map Saliency-Driven Gaze Behavior for Non-Conversational Characters.

Gaze behavior of virtual characters in video games and virtual reality experiences is a key factor of realism and immersion. Indeed, gaze plays many roles when interacting with the environment; not only does it indicate what characters are looking at, but it also plays an important role in verbal and non-verbal behaviors and in making virtual characters alive. Automated computing of gaze behaviors is however a challenging problem, and to date none of the existing methods are capable of producing close-to-real results in an interactive context. We therefore propose a novel method that leverages recent advances in several distinct areas related to visual saliency, attention mechanisms, saccadic behavior modelling, and head-gaze animation techniques. Our approach articulates these advances to converge on a multi-map saliency-driven model which offers real-time realistic gaze behaviors for non-conversational characters, together with additional user-control over customizable features to compose a wide variety of results. We first evaluate the benefits of our approach through an objective evaluation that confronts our gaze simulation with ground truth data using an eye-tracking dataset specifically acquired for this purpose. We then rely on subjective evaluation to measure the level of realism of gaze animations generated by our method, in comparison with gaze animations captured from real actors. Our results show that our method generates gaze behaviors that cannot be distinguished from captured gaze animations. Overall, we believe that these results will open the way for more natural and intuitive design of realistic and coherent gaze animations for real-time applications.

Effectiveness of labels in digital art experience: psychophysiological and behavioral evidence.

Nowadays museums make large use of digital materials (e.g., virtual tours) to attract visitors. Therefore, it is worthwhile investigating which variables affect the engagement with art outside the museum, and whether digital reproductions of artworks are as effective as museum originals in producing a satisfying aesthetic experience. Here we tested the effectiveness of introducing additional informative materials on the artistic enjoyment of contemporary paintings presented on a computer screen. Naïve observers were exposed to essential and descriptive labels before viewing artworks. We flanked traditional measurement methods - viewing times and questionnaires, with biometric parameters - pupil responses, eye movements, heart rate, and electrodermal activity. The results were then compared to our previous museum study that adopted the same experimental paradigm. Our behavioral and psychophysiological data lead to a complex pattern of results. As found in the museum setting, providing detailed descriptions decreases complexity, evokes more positive sensations, and induces pupil dilation but does not enhance aesthetic appreciation. These results suggested that informative labels improve understanding and emotions but have a limited impact on the hedonic evaluation of artworks in both contexts. However, other results do not mirror those found in the museum; in the laboratory setting, participants spend a similar amount of time, have a comparable gaze behavior, and their electrodermal activity and heart rate do not change when viewing artworks with different types of labels. The main difference between the lab and museum settings is the shorter time spent viewing digital reproductions vs. real paintings, although subjective ratings (e.g., liking, interest) are comparable. Overall, this study indicates that the environmental context does impact the aesthetic experience; although, some beneficial effects of introducing additional relevant content in labels accompanying artworks can also be acquainted through digital media outside of the museum.

Scanpath Prediction on Information Visualisations.

We propose Unified Model of Saliency and Scanpaths (UMSS)- a model that learns to predict multi-duration saliency and scanpaths (i.e. sequences of eye fixations) on information visualisations. Although scanpaths provide rich information about the importance of different visualisation elements during the visual exploration process, prior work has been limited to predicting aggregated attention statistics, such as visual saliency. We present in-depth analyses of gaze behaviour for different information visualisation elements (e.g. Title, Label, Data) on the popular MASSVIS dataset. We show that while, overall, gaze patterns are surprisingly consistent across visualisations and viewers, there are also structural differences in gaze dynamics for different elements. Informed by our analyses, UMSS first predicts multi-duration element-level saliency maps, then probabilistically samples scanpaths from them. Extensive experiments on MASSVIS show that our method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods with respect to several, widely used scanpath and saliency evaluation metrics. Our method achieves a relative improvement in sequence score of 11.5% for scanpath prediction, and a relative improvement in Pearson correlation coefficient of up to 23.6% for saliency prediction. These results are auspicious and point towards richer user models and simulations of visual attention on visualisations without the need for any eye tracking equipment.

Strategic insights into penalty kick execution: A comprehensive analysis of observable behaviors in the German Bundesliga

This study aimed to investigate which observable variables would be able to predict the penalty taker strategy; and to identify the prevalence of the penalty taker strategy in successful penalty kicks. Dataset consists of 220 penalty kicks from the German Bundesliga (2019-2021). Video-based performance analysis of in-match penalty kicks was performed. Chi-squared (χ2) test and logistic regression (enter method) analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between observable behaviors and the penalty-taker strategy. The following behavior: gaze behavior at the ball, no deception, number of steps more than 3, perceived ball speed as powerful shot, run up speed fast, penalty kick shot height at the center or down, kicking technique instep kick, and run up approach frontal was related to the goalkeeper independent strategy (χ2 (177) = 211.049, 96%, p < .001). In successful penalty kicks the independent goalkeeper strategy was more adopted (59.87%). The differentiation between penalty kick patterns provides scientific and practical insights as it enables researchers to identify patterns in the German Bundesliga. Through analysis of the kicker's running pattern, deception actions, gaze behavior, and kicking technique, football practitioners may attempt to determine the kicker's favored approach, and ultimately the penalty kick strategy, so they can inform coaching staff and players.

Investigating the role of flight phase and task difficulty on low-time pilot performance, gaze dynamics and subjective situation awareness during simulated flight.

Gaze behaviour has been used as a proxy for information processing capabilities that underlie complex skill performance in real-world domains such as aviation. These processes are highly influenced by task requirements, expertise and can provide insight into situation awareness (SA). Little research has been done to examine the extent to which gaze behaviour, task performance and SA are impacted by various task manipulations within the confines of early-stage skill development. Accordingly, the current study aimed to understand the impact of task difficulty on landing performance, gaze behaviour and SA across different phases of flight. Twenty-four low-time (<300 hours) pilots completed simulated landing scenarios under visual flight rules conditions. Traditional gaze metrics, entropybased metrics, and blink rate provided meaningful insight about the extent to which information processing is modulated by flight phase and task difficulty. The results also suggested that gaze behavior changes compensated for increased task demands and minimized the impact on task performance. Dynamic gaze analyses were shown to be a robust measure of task difficulty and pilot flight hours. Recommendations for the effective implementation of gaze behaviour metrics and their utility in examining information processing changes are discussed.

Where do ICU trainees really look? An eye-tracking analysis of gaze patterns during central venous catheter insertion

Background: There is limited knowledge about gaze patterns of intensive care unit (ICU) trainee doctors during the insertion of a central venous catheter (CVC). The primary objective of this study was to examine visual patterns exhibited by ICU trainee doctors during CVC insertion. Additionally, the study investigated whether differences in gaze patterns could be identified between more and less experienced trainee doctors. Methods: In a real-life, prospective observational study conducted at the interdisciplinary ICU at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, ICU trainee doctors underwent eye-tracking during CVC insertion in a real ICU patient. Using mixed-effects model analyses, the primary outcomes were dwell time, first fixation duration, revisits, fixation count, and average fixation time on different areas of interest (AOI). Secondary outcomes were above eye-tracking outcome measures stratified according to experience level of participants. Results: Eighteen participants were included, of whom 10 were inexperienced and eight more experienced. Dwell time was highest for CVC preparation table ( p = 0.02), jugular vein on ultrasound image ( p &lt; 0.001) and cervical puncture location ( p &lt; 0.001). Concerning experience, dwell time and revisits on jugular vein on ultrasound image ( p = 0.02 and p = 0.04, respectively) and cervical puncture location ( p = 0.004 and p = 0.01, respectively) were decreased in more experienced ICU trainees. Conclusions: Various AOIs have distinct significance for ICU trainee doctors during CVC insertion. Experienced participants exhibited different gaze behavior, requiring less attention for preparation and handling tasks, emphasizing the importance of hand-eye coordination.

Attentional Processes in Pain: The Importance of Context and Attentional Alignment

The attentional bias literature has consistently failed to take context into account. We developed a novel paradigm in immersive virtual reality (VR) with pain stimuli where it would be adaptive or nonadaptive to attend to the stimuli. Participants had to indicate the location of the stimuli. Seventy participants were recruited. The VR-attention task assessed overall attentional bias (the tendency to prioritize pain compared with nonpain stimuli) and attentional alignment (the tendency to attend to pain more in adaptive than nonadaptive situations). Pain tolerance and threshold were measured using electrocutaneous stimulation and thermal pain. We conducted 2 (context: adaptive vs nonadaptive) × 2 (congruence: congruent vs incongruent) Analysis of Covariance, controlling for threat. Participants responded to pain probes more quickly in adaptive than nonadaptive contexts. There was an overall bias away from pain-related stimuli (avoidance) in reaction time to the target. There was also an interaction where avoidance was greater in nonadaptive contexts, indicative of attentional alignment. For gaze behavior, both attentional alignment and attentional bias were observed for latency to first fixation on the target, such that participants showed vigilance for pain particularly in the adaptive context. Attentional alignment was correlated with threshold and tolerance from electrocutaneous stimulation but not thermal pain. In conclusion, we found overall attentional biases indicating vigilance (latency to first fixation) and avoidance (response to target). We also found that participants evidenced a pattern of attention favoring adaptive over nonadaptive contexts (attentional alignment). It was attentional alignment, but not overall attentional bias, that predicted pain tolerance and threshold. PerspectiveThe study explored attentional processes in pain through a novel paradigm designed in VR. The results found that positive attentional alignment, or the tendency to attend to pain more in adaptive contexts rather than nonadaptive contexts, predicted pain outcomes.

Gaze behaviour during multiple object tracking is sensitive to postural stability

ABSTRACT This study aimed to assess the impact of manipulating postural stability during the execution of the multiple objects tracking (MOT) task on gaze behaviour. Twenty-eight males performed the MOT task under three levels of postural stability while eye movements were recorded. Postural stability had a significant impact on MOT scores and gaze behaviour. Participants exhibited worse MOT performance (p < 0.001, η² = 0.20) in less stable conditions, showing a reduced fixation duration (p = 0.020, η² = 0.09) and increased saccade frequency (p = 0.013, η² = 0.10). As stability conditions decreased, participants shifted their gaze strategies by an average of 12.34% of the time distribution from maintaining fixation on a central location to adopting the target-looking strategy. Additionally, the decline in MOT scores with decreasing stability was correlated with a reduction in fixation duration (r = 0.409, p = 0.031). The findings evidence that gaze behaviour during MOT is dependent on postural stability and MOT performance is influenced by the chosen gaze strategy. Key points Reduced postural stability significantly impairs the ability to track multiple objects. Changes in postural stability during a multiple object tracking task affect gaze behaviour by alterations in fixation duration and saccadic frequency. Decrease in multiple object tracking task scores is associated with alterations in gaze behaviour, specifically a reduction in fixation duration. Participants shifted their gaze strategies from maintaining fixation on a central location to adopting a saccadic target-looking strategy as stability conditions decreased.

A Review on Autism Spectrum Disorder Screening by Artificial Intelligence Methods.

With the increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the importance of early screening and diagnosis has been subject to considerable discussion. Given the subtle differences between ASD children and typically developing children during the early stages of development, it is imperative to investigate the utilization of automatic recognition methods powered by artificial intelligence. We aim to summarize the research work on this topic and sort out the markers that can be used for identification. We searched the papers published in the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Medline, SpringerLink, Wiley Online Library, and EBSCO databases from 1st January 2013 to 13th November 2023, and 43 articles were included. These articles mainly divided recognition markers into five categories: gaze behaviors, facial expressions, motor movements, voice features, and task performance. Based on the above markers, the accuracy of artificial intelligence screening ranged from 62.13 to 100%, the sensitivity ranged from 69.67 to 100%, the specificity ranged from 54 to 100%. Therefore, artificial intelligence recognition holds promise as a tool for identifying children with ASD. However, it still needs to continually enhance the screening model and improve accuracy through multimodal screening, thereby facilitating timely intervention and treatment.

Deep learning–based eye tracking system to detect distracted driving

To investigate drivers’ gaze behavior and the characteristics of their gaze positions while driving, a natural driving behavior test method was employed alongside a non-contact eye-tracking device to conduct an in-vehicle experiment for collecting gaze data. Initially, we utilized the traditional approach to delineate the area of interest, analyzing variations in pupil diameter, gaze positions, and the duration spent in each area throughout the driving task, thereby compiling statistics on drivers’ gaze patterns. Subsequently, harnessing the You Only Look Once version 5 architecture, we can precisely identify the position of vehicles and obstacles from the captured images. Enhancements to the network model—including streamlining and integrating an attention mechanism—have significantly refined target detection accuracy. In the final analysis, by correlating drivers’ gaze data with the positional information of upcoming obstacles, we can accurately assess where drivers are looking. This fusion of data allows for a more nuanced observation of gaze dispersion and position within a one-second timeframe, providing valuable insights into drivers’ attention distribution and driving behaviors.

Exploring the role of gaze behaviour in socially shared regulation of collaborative learning in a group task

AbstractBackgroundThe necessity of supporting socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) for learners is widely acknowledged as a crucial element for successful collaborative learning (CL). However, inherent challenges are presented for the observation, study, and support of SSRL. Non‐verbal behaviours have been identified as a potentially rich resource for understanding learner interactions within CL. Yet, the exploration of its impact on SSRL remains largely unexplored.ObjectiveThe present study aims to explore how gaze behaviour, as a non‐verbal behaviour, relates to verbal interactions that characterise SSRL in CL.MethodsTwenty‐seven Finnish secondary school students were given a 30‐min group task of creating a breakfast smoothie, in which trigger events were integrated to examine possible interactions that characterise SSRL. In this experimental setting, data from multiple modalities were collected. For analysis, process mining was used to explore patterns of interaction, and multidimensional recurrence quantification analysis (MdRQA) was used, alongside with statistical analysis.Results and ConclusionsOur study revealed that gaze behaviour is intricately linked with SSRL interactions, suggesting a complex interplay in collaborative learning contexts. When temporally investigated, SSRL interactions varied in frequency while gaze behaviour remained constant. Moreover, the recurrence of gaze and SSRL interactions did not vary due to trigger events, confirming an established collaborative pattern.ImplicationsThis study advances the field by extending research on SSRL by introducing a ‘non‐verbal perspective’. This perspective enriches our understanding of collaborative learning environments by revealing hidden interaction patterns and guiding the development of more responsive and adaptive digital learning tools.

Capturing Initial Gaze Attraction in Branded Spaces Through VR Eye-Tracking Technology

This paper leverages recent strides in virtual reality (VR) technology to dissect user gaze patterns and initial responses in a VR-based in-store environment, with a focus on how visual elements impact attention in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI). Specifically, this exploratory study focuses on brand-centric components such as logos and colors, while also considering individual variables such as gender and design background. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research combines qualitative and quantitative tools. A VR-integrated eye-tracking system records how participants’ gaze behaves in a virtual retail environment. The study collects data from 50 participants in four scenarios: a control store (Case 1), introduction of the brand’s logo signage (Case 2), infusion of the brand’s primary color (Case 3), and a fusion of logo and color (Case 4). Two key eye-tracking metrics—time to first fixation (TTFF) and first fixation duration (FFD)—are harnessed to scrutinize gaze behavior across elements such as wall color, logo signage, wall display fixtures, and media screens. The research unearths statistically significant effects of visual elements on gaze behavior, with particular emphasis on TTFF and FFD. Gender disparities come to light in Cases 2, 3, and 4, affecting FFD on wall color (AOI 1) and TTFF on brand logo signage (AOI 2) in Case 2. Moreover, disparities in design background surface in Cases 1 and 3. Complementing the eye-tracking data and post-experiment interviews capture users’ initial gaze attraction and preferences, offering valuable insights into their rationale. In essence, this study underscores the transformative potential of VR technology and eye-tracking techniques in HCI and furnishes actionable insights for those seeking to elevate brand recognition and consumer engagement within immersive virtual retail settings.