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.

在不断增长的全球市场潜力和需求的推动下，以及信息和通信技术进步的推动下，现代工作场所的趋势之一是更加分散的团队工作。分布式工作长期以来一直是计算机科学的一个主要话题，但尽管工作出色并且开发了高度复杂的计算机支持的协作工作（CSCW）系统，但在许多情况下，面对面的会议是无法替代的。由此产生的出差会议需求会对个人的短期生活质量和生产力产生直接影响。我们目前对长途旅行的依赖可能还会产生更深远的影响。因此，尝试确定某些 CSCW 失败的原因并研究可能的技术来扩大可以避免面对面会议的情况仍然非常有意义。有许多常见的协作场景需要更自然的远距离交互方式。具体来说，我们已经将注意力和情感的有意识和潜意识交流确定为常见的关键要素，这使得许多此类场景在没有眼睛注视的情况下难以支持。眼睛注视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。事实上，许多人声称缺乏忠实代表眼睛注视的能力是当前 CSCW 系统的主要失败。在当今基于视频的系统中，如果用户愿意直视相机，则可以以某种有限的方式维持眼睛注视，但这在社交场合中是不必要的限制，特别是在以对象或环境为中心的协作期间。我们建议评估眼睛注视在电信中的作用，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远程协作系统，该系统支持两向和三向通信目光注视，而不限制参与者的注视方向。我们将把眼球追踪技术集成到沉浸式投影技术（IPT）显示器中，并开发必要的软件来构建一致的协作虚拟环境，让每个参与者都可以看到对方并准确跟踪他们的眼球注视。为了证明该系统的实用性，我们将其与 AccessGrid 技术进行比较，后者在大型墙壁显示器上提供最先进的视频会议。虽然无法支持移动参与者之间的交流目光注视，但 AccessGrid 确实在工作环境中的放置和表示的真实性方面提供了优势。这两种方法之间的比较将为每种方法的未来发展提供有价值的见解。通过一系列实验，我们将确定在电信系统中支持通信眼睛凝视的必要和充分条件；通过衡量目光对协作的影响来验证目光在电信中的支持；衡量技术方法和变量的影响；确定何时眼睛注视很重要；并建立眼神对于远距离成功协作至关重要的情境。

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