ETRA 2010 Keynote

An Eye on Input: Research Challenges in Using the Eye for Computer Input Control

I. Scott MacKenzie
York University, Canada

The human eye, with the assistance of an eye tracking apparatus, may serve as an input controller to a computer system. Much like point-select operations with a mouse, the eye can "look-select", and thereby activate items such as buttons, icons, links, or text. Applications for accessible computing are particularly enticing, since the manual ability of disabled users' is often lacking or limited. Whether intended for the able-bodied or the disabled, computer control systems using the eye as an input "device" present numerous research challenges. These involve accommodating the innate characteristics of the eye, such as movement by saccades, eye jitter, the absence of a simple and intuitive selection method, and the inability to determine a precise point of fixation through eye position alone. Evaluating the eye working in concert with an eye tracking system requires a methodology that uniquely addresses the characteristics of both the eye and the eye tracking apparatus. This presentation surveys and reviews the central research issues and methodologies used in evaluating eye tracking systems for computer input. Some examples and challenge in accessible computing are also included.

About the Presenter

Scott MacKenzie's research is in human-computer interaction with an emphasis on human performance measurement and modeling, experimental methods and evaluation, interaction devices and techniques, text entry, language modeling, mobile computing, alternative feedback modalities, and eye tracking. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in the field of Human- Computer Interaction (including more than 30 from the ACM's annual SIGCHI conference) and has given numerous invited talks over the past 20 years. Since 1999, he has been Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at York University, Canada.

Home page: http://www.yorku.ca/mack/