INTERACTION AND VISUALIZATION DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR GAZE-GUIDED COMMUNICATION IN COLLABORATIVE EXTENDED REALITY

Abstract. There is evidence in literature that collaborative work while using digital tools could benefit from visualizing the real time eye movements of a selected participant, or possibly, several participants. In this study, we examine alternative gaze interaction and visualization design prototypes in a digital collaboration scenario, in which assumed collaboration environment is a co-located mixed reality environment. Specifically, we implemented a virtual pointer as a baseline, and representations of gaze as a line, a cursor, and an ‘automated line’ where the line and cursor are automatically alternated based on occlusion detection. These prototypes are then evaluated in a series of usability studies with additional exploratory observations for a spatial communication scenario. In the scenario participants either describe routes to someone else or learn them from someone else for navigational planning. In this paper we describe the alternative interaction design prototypes, as well as various visualization designs for the gaze itself (continuous line and dashed line) and the point of regard (donut, dashed donut, sphere, rectangle) to guide collaboration and report our findings from several usability studies (n=6). We also interviewed our participants which allows us to make some qualitative observations on the potential function and usefulness of these visualization and interaction prototypes. Overall, the outcomes suggest that gaze visualization solutions in general are promising approaches to assist communication in collaborative XR, although, not surprisingly, how they are designed is important.