Gaze and Voice Controlled Drawing: Case Study III

Abstract

The third case study¹, Gaze and Voice Controlled Drawing, was developed by Jan van der Kamp from the Interactive Entertainment Technology Programme at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland [van der Kamp, 2010, van der Kamp and Sundstedt, 2011]. This case study presents a combination of gaze and voice commands as a means of hands-free interaction in a paint style program. A drawing application is implemented which is controllable by input from gaze and voice. Voice commands are used to activate drawing which allow gaze to be used only for positioning the cursor. As discussed previously one of the main problems in gaze based interfaces is that of the Midas touch. When using gaze as input for a drawing program for example, this can lead to frustration as drawing can be activated without a user intending it to be. Previous work in gaze based drawing tools have used dwell time to activate drawing. As described earlier dwell time works by requiring the user to fixate their gaze at one point for a particular amount of time to confirm a selection. This is not a perfect solution to the problem due to both the delay involved and the possibility of drawing still being activated without intent. This case study describes an approach of using voice commands to activate drawing. The intention is that removing confirmation of drawing from gaze data will lead to an improved user experience and drawing possibilities. It could possibly also be quicker to draw since users will not have to wait for a dwell to be picked up in order for drawing to be activated. The drawing application is evaluated using subjective responses from participant user trials. The tool is evaluated with two groups of users: (1) users working with interactive entertainment technologies and (2) users who are not working with computer graphics. The main result indicates that although gaze and voice based drawing offers less control than traditional input devices it is perceived as the more enjoyable option.