Abstract
In the design of interactive applications, notably games, a recent trend is to understand player behavior by investigating telemetry logs as is the focus of many chapters in this book or by integrating the use of psychophysics as is the subject of Chaps. 26 and 27. In addition to these valuable methods, measuring, where players are likely to focus, could be a very useful tool in the arsenal of game designers. This knowledge can be utilized to help game designers decide how and where to allocate computing resources, such as rendering and various kinds of simulations of physical properties. This leaves as many computing cycles as possible free to carry out other tasks. Therefore, the perceived realism of a game can be increased by perceptually optimizing calculations that are computationally intensive, including physically based lighting (e.g. ray-tracing Cater et al. 2003), animations (e.g. crowds of characters McDonnell et al. 2009), physically correct simulations of the interaction of materials (e.g. collision detection (O’Sullivan 2005), natural behavior of clothes or fluids etc.). Level of Detail variants of simulation or rendering techniques can be used in regions which are less attended by the player, while accurate simulations can be used within the expected focus of a user. Verifying or improving game mechanics and AI could be other uses.
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Veronica Sundstedt is an Assistant Professor at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden where she coordinates the Computer Graphics research subgroup. She was previously a lecturer in the GV2 (Graphics, Vision, and Visualisation) Group in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, UK. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Graphics from the University of Bristol and an M.Sc. in Media Technology from the University of Linköping, Sweden. Her research interests are in computer graphics and perception, in particular perceptually-based rendering algorithms, experimental validation, novel interaction techniques, and eye tracking technology. She organized and co-chaired the first Novel Gaze-Controlled Applications (NGCA) conference in 2011 and co-chaired the ACM APGV conference in 2007 and the Eurographics Ireland workshop in 2009. She is also on the editorial board of the ACM Transactions on Applied Perception. Veronica is Program Co-Chair for the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (formerly APGV) in 2012 and the lead author of the book: Gazing at Games: An Introduction to Eye Tracking Control.
Efstathios Stavrakis is currently Visiting Lecturer at with the University of Cyprus. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Vienna University of Technology (Austria) and has studied for an M.Sc. in Computer-Aided Graphical Technology Application and a BA (Hons) in Creative Visualisation at the University of Teesside (UK). He has conducted and published research in computer games, graphics and vision, eye-tracking and psychophysics, non-photorealistic rendering, as well as 3D audio rendering for VEs. He brings a wealth of experience in graphical algorithms, interface design and software development. Previously, he has held posts at the Technical University of Vienna (Austria), at INRIA Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée (France) and the Glasgow School of Art (UK).
Matthias Bernhard is a Ph.D. Student at the institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms of the Vienna University of Technology. He received a Bachelor degree Information Engineering at the University of Konstanz in 2004 and his Master Degree in Medical Computer Science at Vienna University of Technology in 2006. He follows an interdisciplinary perspective and his current research interests include bimodal perception and the role of visual attention in virtual environments.
Michael Wimmer is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms of the Vienna University of Technology, where he received an M.Sc. in 1997 and a Ph.D. in 2001. His current research interests are real-time rendering, computer games, real-time visualization of urban environments, point-based rendering and procedural modeling. He has coauthored many papers in these fields, and was papers co-chair of EGSR 2008 and Pacific Graphics 2012. He also co-authored the book “Real-time Shadows”.
Erik Reinhard received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Bristol in 2000, having worked on his Ph.D. at Delft University of Technology, as well as in Bristol. After holding a post-doctoral position at the University of Utah (2000–2002) and an Assistant Professorship at the University of Central Florida (2002–2005), he returned to Bristol as a lecturer in January 2006 to become senior lecturer in 2007. Erik founded the prestigious ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, and has been Editor-in-Chief since its inception in 2003, until early 2009. He is currently Associate Editor for this journal, as well as for Computers and Graphics. Erik is lead author of two books: ‘High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display, and Image-Based Lighting’ and ‘Color Imaging: Fundamentals and Applications’. He is keynote speaker for Eurographics 2010, the Computational Color Imaging Workshop 2011 as well as the 6th European Conference on Color in Graphics, Imaging, and Vision (CGIV 2012). He is program co-chair for the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2011 and area co-chair for the high dynamic range imaging track at Eurographics 2011. Finally, his interests are in the application of knowledge from perception and neuroscience to help solve problems in graphics and related fields.
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Sundstedt, V., Bernhard, M., Stavrakis, E., Reinhard, E., Wimmer, M. (2013). Visual Attention and Gaze Behavior in Games: An Object-Based Approach. In: Seif El-Nasr, M., Drachen, A., Canossa, A. (eds) Game Analytics. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4769-5_25
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