Eye Catching: Supporting tele-communicational eye-gaze in Collaborative Virtual Environments

引人注目：支持协作虚拟环境中的远程通信视线

• 批准号: EP/E010032/1
• 负责人: Anthony Steed
• 金额: $ 30.18万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FE010032%2F1
• 关键词: Eye; Catching; Supporting; tele; communicational

Driven by the potentials and demands of an increasing global market and fed by advances in information and communication technology, one of the trends in the modern workplace is for more distributed team working. Distributed working has long been a major topic in computer science, but despite excellent work and the development of highly sophisticated computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems, in many situations there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting. The consequent demands for travel to meetings have immediate short term quality of life and productivity impacts on individuals. There may also be more far-reaching and profound implications of our current reliance on long distance travel. Thus it is still very relevant to try to determine why some CSCW fails and to research possible technologies for expanding the situations for which face to face meetings can be avoided. There are numerous common collaborative scenarios that require a more natural way of interacting across a distance. Specifically we have identified conscious and subconscious communication of attention and emotion as common critical elements that make many such scenarios hard to support without eye-gaze. Eye-gaze is a key interactional resource in collaboration but it is not well supported in today's communication technology. Indeed many have claimed that lack of ability to faithfully represent eye-gaze is the key failing of current CSCW systems. Within today's video based systems eye-gaze can be maintained in some limited way if the user is willing to look directly at a camera, but this is unnecessarily constraining in a social situation, especially during object or environment focussed collaboration.We propose to evaluate the role of eye-gaze in tele-communication so as to better design future communication technologies. To do this we will build the world's first tele-collaboration system that supports two and three way communicational eye-gaze without restricting the gaze direction of participants. We will integrate eye-tracking technologies into Immersive Projection Technology (IPT) displays, and develop the software necessary to build a consistent collaborative virtual environment where each participant can see the other and accurately track their eye-gaze. To prove the utility of this system we will compare it to AccessGrid technology which provides state-of-the-art video conferencing on large wall displays. Although unable to support communicational eye-gaze between moving participants, AccessGrid does offer advantages in terms of placement within working environments and realism of representation. Comparison between the two approaches will provide valuable insight into future development of each. Through a series of experiments we will establish what conditions are necessary and sufficient to support communicational eye-gaze in a tele-communication system; validate the support of eye-gaze in tele-communication by measuring its impact on collaboration; measure the impact of technology approaches and variables; establish when eye-gaze is important; and establish situations where eye-gaze is critical for successful collaboration at a distance.

在全球市场不断增长的潜力和需求的驱动下，并受到信息和通信技术的进步，现代工作场所的趋势之一是为更多的分布式团队工作。长期以来，分布式工作一直是计算机科学领域的主要主题，但是尽管工作出色，并且开发了高度复杂的计算机支持合作工作（CSCW）系统，但在许多情况下，无法替代面对面的会议。随之而来的对会议旅行的需求会立即对个人产生短期生活质量和生产力的影响。我们目前对长距离旅行的依赖也可能有更多的深远和深远的影响。因此，尝试确定某些CSCW失败并研究可能避免面对面会议的情况的可能技术仍然非常重要。有许多常见的协作场景需要更自然的方式来跨距离进行互动。具体而言，我们已经确定了注意力和情感的有意识和潜意识的交流是普遍的关键因素，这些要素使许多这样的情况很难支持而没有眼神。 Eye Gaze是协作中的关键交互资源，但在当今的通信技术中并没有得到很好的支持。确实，许多人声称缺乏忠实地代表眼神的能力是当前CSCW系统的关键失败。在当今基于视频的系统中，如果用户愿意直接看相机，则可以以某种有限的方式保持眼睛凝视，但这在社交状况中不必要地限制了，尤其是在重点关注的对象或环境期间，我们建议您评估眼睛凝视在远程通信中的作用，以便更好地设计未来的通信技术。为此，我们将建立世界上第一个支持两种和三路的沟通视力凝视的电视制作系统，而无需限制参与者的凝视方向。我们将将眼球追踪技术集成到沉浸式投影技术（IPT）显示中，并开发所需的软件，以构建一个一致的协作虚拟环境，每个参与者都可以看到对方并准确地跟踪他们的眼睛注视。为了证明该系统的实用性，我们将将其与AccessGrid技术进行比较，该技术在大墙显示器上提供了最新的视频会议。尽管无法支持移动参与者之间的沟通视线，但AccessGrid确实在工作环境中的位置和代表性的现实主义方面确实具有优势。两种方法之间的比较将为每种方法的未来发展提供宝贵的见解。通过一系列实验，我们将确定哪些条件是必要和足够的，以支持远程通信系统中的沟通视力。通过衡量其对协作的影响来验证远视远程通讯的支持；衡量技术方法和变量的影响；确定眼睛何时重要；并确定眼睛凝视对于在远处成功合作至关重要的情况。

项目成果

Eye-tracking for avatar eye-gaze and interactional analysis in immersive collaborative virtual environments

沉浸式协作虚拟环境中头像注视的眼动追踪和交互分析

• DOI: 10.1145/1460563.1460593
• 发表时间: 2008
• 作者: Steptoe W