BBC News: The future of gadget interaction

Dan Simmons at BBC reports on future technologies from the Science Beyond Fiction 2009 conference in Prague. The news headline includes a section on the GazeCom project who won the 2nd prize for their exhibit "Gaze-contingent displays and interaction". Their website hosts additional demonstrations.

"Gaze tracking is well-established and has been used before now by online advertisers who use it to decide the best place to put an advert. A novel use of the system tracks someone's gaze and brings into focus the area of a video being watched by blurring their peripheral vision.In the future, the whole image could also be panned left or right as the gaze approaches the edge of the screen. Film producers are interested in using the system to direct viewers to particular parts within a movie. However, interacting with software through simply looking will require accurate but unobtrusive eye tracking systems that, so far, remain on the drawing board... The European Commission (EC) is planning to put more cash into such projects. In April it said it would increase its investment in this field from 100m to 170m euros (£89m-£152m) by 2013. " (BBC source ) More information about the EC CORDIS : ICT program.

External link. The BBC reported Dan Simmons tests a system designed to use a driver's peripheral vision to flag up potential dangers on the road. It was recorded at the Science Beyond Fiction conference in Prague.

The GazeCom project involves the following partners:

• Institute for Neuro- and Bioinformatics, University of Lübeck
• Justus Liebig University of Giessen
• University Medical Centre Groningen
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• University Politehnica Bucuresti
• SensoMotoric Instruments GmbH

ETRA 2010 Call for papers

ETRA 2010 will be the sixth biennial symposium in a series that focuses on all aspects of eye movement research across a wide range of disciplines. The goal of ETRA is to bring together computer scientists, engineers and behavioral scientists in support of a common vision of enhancing eye tracking research and applications. ETRA 2010 is being organized in conjunction with the European Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN) research network that specializes in gaze-based interaction for the benefit of people with physical disabilities.

Update: List of accepted and presented papers.

Symposium Themes

• Advances in Eye Tracking Technology and Data Analysis
  Eye tracking systems, calibration algorithms, data analysis techniques, noise reduction, predictive models, 3D POR measurement, low cost and natural light systems.

• Visual Attention and Eye Movement Control
  Studies of eye movements in response to natural stimuli, driving studies, web use and usability studies.

• Eye Tracking Applications
  Gaze-contingent displays, attentive user interfaces, gaze-based interaction techniques, security systems, multimodal interfaces, augmented and mixed reality systems, ubiquitous computing.

• Special Theme: Eye Tracking and Accessibility
  Eye tracking has proved to be an effective means of making computers more accessible when the use of keyboards and mice is hindered by the task itself (such as driving), or by physical disabilities. We invite submissions that explore new methodological strategies, applications, and results that use eye tracking in assistive technologies for access to desktop applications, for environment and mobility control, and for gaze control of games and entertainment..

Two categories of submissions are being sought – Full Papers and Short Papers.
Full papers must be submitted electronically through the ETRA 2010 website and conform to the ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings category 2 format. Full papers submissions can have a maximum length of eight pages. Full papers submissions should be made in double-blind format, hiding authors’ names and affiliations and all references to the authors’ previous work. Those wishing to submit a full paper must submit an abstract in advance to facilitate the reviewing process. Accepted papers will be published in the ETRA 2010 proceedings, and the authors will give a 20 minute oral presentation of the paper at the conference.

Short papers may present work that has smaller scope than a full paper or may present late breaking results. These must be submitted electronically through the ETRA 2010 submission website and conform to the ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings category 3 format. Short paper submissions have a maximum length of four pages (but can be as short as a one-page abstract). Given the time constraints of this type of paper, submissions must be made in camera-ready format including authors' names and affiliations. Accepted submissions will be published in the ETRA 2010 proceedings. Authors will present a poster at the conference, and authors of the most highly rated submissions will give a 10 minute presentation of the paper in a Short Papers session. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by members of an international review panel and members of the program committee. Best Paper Awards will be given to the most highly ranked Full Papers and Short Papers.

Full Papers Deadlines

• Sep. 30th, 2009 Full Papers abstract submission deadline
• Oct. 7th, 2009 Full Papers submission deadline
• Nov. 13th, 2009 Acceptance notification

Short Papers Deadlines

• Dec. 2th, 2009 Short Papers submission deadline
• Jan. 8th, 2010 Short Papers acceptance notification
• Jan. 15th, 2010 All camera ready papers due

More information on the ETRA website.

Interactive Yarbus at MU, Netherlands

An interactive art exhibition by Christien Meindertsma in the Netherlands opens up for a real time generation of scanpaths to draw images similar to the ones presented in classic Yarbus paper. The main purpose is to illustrate individual differences in the way we look at objects (such as faces, umbrellas, cups etc.) These images are then printed directly and becomes a part of the exhibition. The exhibition runs until June 14th (location: Eindhoven).

Scanpath from the Yarbus (1967) for comparison.

COGAIN 2009 Program announced

This years Communication By Gaze Interaction conference is held on the 26th of May in Lyngby, Denmark in connection with the VisionDay (a four day event on computer vision). Registration for attending should be made on or before May 14th. Download program as pdf.

Update: the proceedings can be downloaded as pdf.


The program for May 26th

• 08.00 Registration, exhibition, demonstrations, coffee, and rolls

SESSION I

• 09.00 Welcome and introduction (Lars Pallesen, Rector @ DTU)
• 09.10 Eye guidance in natural behaviour (B. W. Tatler)
• 09.50 Achievements and experiences in the course of COGAIN (K. Raiha)
• 10.30 Coffee, exhibition, demonstrations

SESSION II

• 11.00 Joys and sorrows in communicating with gaze (A. Lykke-Larsen)
• 11.30 An introduction to the 17 papers presented in the afternoon
• 12.00 Lunch, exhibition, demonstrations, posters

SESSION III Track 1

• 13.30 Eye gaze assessment with a person having complex needs (M. Buchholz & E. Holmqvist)
• 13.50 Performance Evaluation of a Low-Cost Gaze Tracker for Eye Typing (M. Barrett, H. Skovsgaard & J. S. Agustin)
• 14.10 Text Editing by Gaze: Static vs. Dynamic Menus (P. Majaranta, N. Majaranta, G. Daunys & O. Spakov)
• 14.30 Selecting with pie menus (M. H. Urbina, M. Lorenz & A. Huckauf)

SESSION III Track 2

• 13.30 Environmental Control Application compliant with Cogain Guidelines (R. Faisal, E. Castellina & F. Corno)
• 13.50 Home and environment control (P. Novák, P. Moc, O. Štepánková & L. Nováková)
• 14.10 A gaze- and cortex-contingent mouse cursor (M. Dorr, C. Rasche & E. Barth)
• 14.30 Optimizing the interoperability between a VOG and a EMG system (M. Ariz, J. Navallas, A. Villanueva, J. S. Agustin, R. Cabeza & M. Tall)

14.50 Coffee, exhibition, demonstrations, posters

SESSION IV Track 1

• 15.30 Gameplay experience in a gaze interaction game (L. Nacke, S. Stellmach, D. Sasse & C. A. Lindley)
• 15.50 Select commands in 3D game environments by gaze gestures (S. Vickers, H. Istance & A. Hyrskykari)
• 16.10 GazeTrain: A case study of an action oriented gaze-controlled game (L. F. Laursen & B. Ersbøll)
• 16.30 Detecting Search and Rescue Targets in Moving Aerial Images using Eye-gaze (J. Mardell, M. Witkowski & R. Spence)
• 16.50 Feasibility Study for the use of Eye-Movements in Estimation of Answer Correctness (M. Nakayama & Y. Hayashi)

SESSION IV Track 2

• 15.30 Eye Tracker Connectivity (G. Daunys & V. Vysniauskas)
• 15.50 SW tool supporting customization of eye tracking algorithms (P. Novák & O. Štepánková)
• 16.10 Multimodal Gaze-Based Interaction (S. Trösterer & J. Dzaack)
• 16.30 Gaze Visualization Trends and Techniques (S. Stellmach, L. Nacke, R. Dachselt & C. A. Lindley)

19.00 COGAIN2009 dinner at Brede Spisehus

The Dias Eye Tracker (Mardanbeigi, 2009)

Diako Mardanbeigi at the Iran University of Science & Technology introduces the Dias Eye Tracking suite. It is a low-cost solution employing a head mounted setup and comes with a rather extensive suite of applications. The software offers gaze control for playing games and music, viewing images, and text-to-speech using a dwell keyboard. It also offers basic eye movement recording and visualization such as scanpaths. The software is built using Visual Basic 6 and implements various algorithms for eye tracking including a rectangular method, RANSAC or LSQ ellipse/circle fitting. Additionally, there is support tracking one or two glints. The following video demonstrates the hardware and software. Congratulations Daiko on this great work!

Gaze-Augmented Manual Interaction (Bieg, H.J, 2009)

Hans-Joachim Bieg with the HCI Group at the University of Konstanz have investigated gaze augmented interaction on very large display areas. The prototype is running on the 221" Powerwall using a head mounted setup and allows users to select and zoom into an item of interest based on gaze position. An earlier video demonstration of setup can be found here.

"This project will demonstrate a new approach to employing users’ gaze in the context of human-computer interaction. This new approach uses gaze passively in order to improve the speed and precision of manually controlled pointing techniques. Designing such gaze augmented manual techniques requires an understanding of the principles that govern the coordination of hand and eye. This coordination is influenced by situational parameters (task complexity, input device used, etc.), which this project will explore in controlled experiments."

Gaze agumented interaction on the 221" PowerWall

• Bieg, H. 2009. Gaze-augmented manual interaction. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 - 09, 2009). CHI EA '09. ACM, New York, NY, 3121-3124. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1520340.1520442

Laval VRchive @ Tokyo Metropolitan University

Hidenori Watanave at the Tokyo Metropolitan University have released a brief video demonstrating gaze interaction for the Laval VRchive. The VRchive is a virtual reality environment for navigating media content. The setup is using a standalone Tobii 1750 tracker and a projector. The simple interface allows gaze control through looking at either the top, bottom, left or right areas of the display area as well as winking to perform clicks. Althrough an early version the initial experiments were successful, but the software is unstable and needs further improvements.

Low-Cost Gaze Pointing and EMG Clicking

"Some severely disabled people are excluded from using gaze interaction because gaze trackers are usually expensive (above $10.000). In this paper we present a low-cost gaze pointer, which we have tested in combination with a desktop monitor and a wearable display. It is not as accurate as commercial gaze trackers, and walking while pointing with gaze on a wearable display turned out to be particularly difficult. However, in front of a desktop monitor it is precise enough to support communication. Supplemented with a commercial EMG switch it offers a complete hands-free, gaze-and-click control for less than $200."

• San Agustin, J., Hansen, J. P., Hansen, D. W., and Skovsgaard, H. 2009. Low-cost gaze pointing and EMG clicking. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 - 09, 2009). CHI EA '09. ACM, New York, NY, 3247-3252. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1520340.1520466

Gaze Controlled Driving

This is the paper on using eye trackers for remote robot navigation I had accepted for the CHI09 conference. It has now appeared on the ACM website. Note that the webcam tracker referred to in the paper is the ITU Gaze Tracker in an earlier incarnation. The main issue while using it is that head movements affect the gaze position and creates an offset. This is easier to correct and counterbalance on a static background than moving image (while driving!)

Abstract

"We investigate if the gaze (point of regard) can control a remote vehicle driving on a racing track. Five different input devices (on-screen buttons, mouse-pointing low-cost webcam eye tracker and two commercial eye tracking systems) provide heading and speed control on the scene view transmitted from the moving robot. Gaze control was found to be similar to mouse control. This suggests that robots and wheelchairs may be controlled ―hands-free‖ through gaze. Low precision gaze tracking and image transmission delays had noticeable effect on performance."

• Tall, M., Alapetite, A., San Agustin, J., Skovsgaard, H. H., Hansen, J. P., Hansen, D. W., and Møllenbach, E. 2009. Gaze-controlled driving. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 - 09, 2009). CHI EA '09. ACM, New York, NY, 4387-4392. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1520340.1520671

ITU Gaze Tracker: Low-cost gaze interaction: ready to deliver the promises (San Agustin, J et al., 2009)

The research paper on the ITU Gaze Tracker that Javier San Agustin presented at CHI09 is now available at the ACM website. It evaluates a previous version of the gaze tracker in two tasks, target acquisition and eye typing in comparison with mouse, SMI IViewX RED and the Tobii 1750.

Abstract
"Eye movements are the only means of communication for some severely disabled people. However, the high prices of commercial eye tracking systems limit the access to this technology. In this pilot study we compare the performance of a low-cost, web cam-based gaze tracker that we have developed with two commercial trackers in two different tasks: target acquisition and eye typing. From analyses on throughput, words per minute and error rates we conclude that a low-cost solution can be as efficient as expensive commercial systems."

• San Agustin, J., Skovsgaard, H., Hansen, J. P., and Hansen, D. W. 2009. Low-cost gaze interaction: ready to deliver the promises. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 - 09, 2009). CHI EA '09. ACM, New York, NY, 4453-4458.
  Download at ACM website.

A brief users guide to the ITU Gaze Tracker

Today we release a short users guide for the open source eye tracker we presented some weeks ago. Hopefully it will assist first time users to configure the software and understanding the limitations of the initial version. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

• Download the pdf document (0.6Mb)

IDG Interview with Javier San Agustin

During the CHI09 in Boston last week Nick Barber from the IDG Network stopped by to record an interview with Javier San Agustin, member of the ITU GazeGroup. The video has now surfaced on several IDG sites around the world, clearly there is an interest for easy to use, low cost eye tracking. After the initial release of ITU Gaze Tracker we have setup a community forum at forum.gazegroup.org, with the ambition to connect users of open source eye tracking. If you like to be part of project, please join in promoting and developing an alternative. It´s open and accessible for all (platform documentation to be released in next week)

Hopefully, ideas and contributions to platform through the community makes the platform take off. Considering the initial release to be a Beta version, there are of course additional improvements to make. Additional cameras needs to be verified and bugs in code to be handled.

If you experience any issues or have ideas for improvements please post at http://forum.gazegroup.org

PCWorld.com

Computerworld.com.au

WebWereld.nl

PCAdvisor.co.uk

TechWorld.nl

IDG.no/ComputerWorld

ComputerWorld.dk

ComputerWorld.hu

ARNnet.com.au

Introducing the ITU GazeTracker

The ITU Gaze Tracker is an open-source eye gaze tracking application that aims to provide a low-cost alternative to commercial gaze tracking systems and thereby making the technology more accessible. It is being developed by the Gaze Group at the IT University of Copenhagen, supported by the Communication by Gaze Interaction Association (COGAIN). The eye tracking software is video-based, and any camera equipped with infrared nightvision can be used, such as a video camera or a webcam. The cameras that have been tested with the system can be found in our forum.

Features:

• Supports head mounted and remote setups
• Tracks both pupil and glints
• Supports a wide variety of camera devices
  
• Configurable calibration
• Eye-mouse capabilities
• UDPServer broadcasting gaze data
• Full source code provided
  

We encourage users and developers to test our software with their cameras and provide feedback so we can continue development. The ITU Gaze Tracker is released under the GLP3 open source license and the full source code is hosted at sourceforge. It´s written in C# using Emgu OpenCV wrapper for C++ image processing. (Microsoft .Net 3.5 needed) Once the tracker has been started it can be configured to broadcast gaze data via the UDP protocol which makes it easy to pick up in your own applications. We provide a sample implementation on a client in C#.

Open source eye tracking has never been easier. Download the binaries, plug the camera and launch the application. Adjust the sliders to match your camera and start the calibration.

Visit the ITU GazeGroup to download the software package. Please get in touch with us at http://forum.gazegroup.org

Radio interview with DR1

Thomas Behrndtz from the Danish Radio (DR1) came by the other day to do an interview on the upcoming ITU Gaze Interaction platform. It resulted in a five minute episode on the "Videnskaben kort", a radio program on interesting progress in science. Lately we have been working hard on the software package which is to be released at CHI09 in Boston next week. It includes a number of applications and tools that are to be released for free download including source code under the GPL licence. In short, these are exciting times for low-cost eye tracking and gaze interaction. Stay tuned..

Click on image to hear the radio interview (in Danish/Swedish)

The Argentinian myEye released

I have been following an interesting project taking place in Argentina during the last half year. Marcelo Laginestra have through his blog described the developments of a low-cost webcam based eye tracker. It has now been released for download, free of charge.

The system requirements are modest,

• CPU: 1.5 Ghz or higher
• RAM: 256 DDR RAM or higher (Recommendation 512 RAM)
• Space: at least 100MB hard disk space.
• Camera: 640x480 capture resolution or higher. (At least 30fps)
• O.S.: Microsoft Windows XP SP2

Go to the myEye website to download the software.

I am happy to see that the project came through, kudos for releasing under Creative Commons.

Keep an eye open for the ITU gaze interaction platform that will be released in conjunction with CHI09 in early April.

ID-U Biometrics: Eye movement based access control

Daphna Palti-Wasserman and Yoram Wasserman at ID-U Biometrics have developed a system which provides secure signatures to access control based on individual eye movement patterns. The subject’s response to a dynamic stimuli provides an unique characteristics. As the stimuli will change the subjects’ responses will be different each time but the pattern of eye movements and the users eye characteristics will remains the same. This results in a "code" which is not entered and not consciously controlled by the user which reduces issues of spoofing. Currently its in a proof-of-concept state, achieving a 100% accurate and stable eye tracking method which would be required for identification has yet to be achieved (by any eye tracking platform that is) However, this method of user identification could be applied in other situations than the ATM (I guess that's why they won the GLOBES start-up competition)

Links:

• Website: http://idu-biometrics.com/

• Isreal21C Business startup magazine. "You'll never be me, with Israel's ID-U cyber identification"

COGAIN 2009 (26th May) "Gaze interaction for those who want it most".

"The 5th international COGAIN conference on eye gaze interaction emphasises user needs and future applications of eye tracking technology. Robust gaze interaction methods have been available for some years, with substantial amounts of applications to support communication, learning and entertainment already being used. However, there are still some uncertainties about this new technology among communication specialists and funding institutions. The 5th COGAIN conference will focus on spreading the experiences of people using gaze interaction in their daily life to potential users and specialists who have yet to benefit from it. Case studies from researchers and manufacturers working on new ways of making gaze interaction available for all, as well as integrating eye gaze with other forms of communication technology are also particularly welcome. We also encourage papers and posters which reach beyond the special case of eye control for people with disabilities into mainstream human-computer interaction development, for instance using eye tracking technology to enhance gaming experience and strategic play."

Themes:

• Gaze-based access to computer applications
• Gaze and environmental control
• Gaze and personal mobility control
• User experience studies
• Innovations in eyetracking systems
• Low cost gaze tracking systems
• Attentive interfaces and inferring user intent from gaze
• Gaze-based interaction with virtual worlds
• Gaze and creativity
• Gaming using gaze as an input modality
• Gaze interaction with wearable displays
• Using gaze with other modalities including BCI

"Papers which deal with the use of eye gaze to study the usability of mainstream applications and websites are not normally considered for inclusion in the conference". For more information see the COGAIN 2009 Call for Papers

Important dates:

Paper submission, 28th February. Notification on acceptance, 15th April. The conference will be held on the 26th of May at the Danish Technical University in connection with the Visionday event.

SWAET 2009 Annouced

The Scandinavian Workshop of Applied Eye-Tracking aims at being a meeting place for graduate students, researchers and others using eye-tracking as a measuring tool. It will be held at the University of Stavanger (May 6- 7th). Keynote speakers at SWAET 2009 are Dr Benjamin Tatler (University of Dundee) and Prof Jukka Hyönä (University of Turku).

Suggested topics for workshop presentations:

• Reading in various contexts
  
• Psycholinguistics
  
• Integration of pictures and language
  
• Face-to-face interaction and other social contexts
  
• Attention (such as top-down/bottom-up factors)
  
• Controlling interfaces with eye-tracking
  
• Viewer behaviour towards images and video
  
• Vehicle and traffic research
  
• Human factors; such as air traffic control, ship navigation and pilots
  
• Evaluation of user interfaces
  
• Cognitive processes such as navigation, planning, problem solving, mental imagery, memory etc.

If you wish to present your research, you have to submit an abstract no later than March 15th 2009. Decisions on acceptance are given on April 1st.

Registration at the conference is € 50 for all delegates except graduate and undergraduate students, who participate free of charge. After April 10th, expect to pay € 80 (students € 30).

Wearable EOG Goggles: Eye-Based Interaction in Everyday Environments

Andreas Bulling in the Wearable Computing Group at the Swiss Federal Insitute of Technology (ETH) is working on a new Electrooculography-based eye tracking system. This technology relies on the small but measurable electrical currents (potentials) created by the eye musculature. A set of electrodes are attached to the skin and after signal processing this data can be used for controlling computer interfaces or other devices. The obvious advantage of this method of eye tracking compared to the more traditional corneal reflection video-based methods is that its not sensitive to sunlight and may therefor be used outdoors. However, to my knowledge, it provide a lower accuracy, this results in most EOG interfaces relying on eye gestures rather than gaze fixations.

"We want to introduce the paradigm of visual perception and investigations on eye movements as new methods to implement novel and complement current context-aware systems. Therefore, we will investigate the potential but also possible limitations of using eye movements to perform context and activity recognition in wearable settings. Besides recognizing individual activities another focus will be put on long-term eye movement analysis." More information.

Recently Andreas got a paper accepted for the CHI 2009 conference in Boston (April 4-9th) where the system will be demonstrated during the interactivity session. Andreas and the team at ETH are planning to investigate attentive user interfaces (AUI) in mobile settings using wearable systems, such as the prototype demonstrated in the video below.

View on YouTube

SMI gets the International Forum Design Award

Congratulations to the guys at SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) for winning the International Forum 2009 Product Design Award with their iView X™ RED eye tracker.

"The unobtrusive yet elegant design for the stand-alone as well as for the monitor-attached configuration of the eye tracking system convinced the jury. "

The award will be presented at the first day of CeBIT (3rd of March) in Hanover. The system will also be on display for those of you who are attending CeBIT. More information on the International Forum Award.

The Argentinian Eye Mouse software released (Amaro & Ponieman)

Nicolás Amaro and Nicolás Ponieman at the ORT Argentina, recently got the Chamber of Industry and Trade Argentine-German Award for Innovation 2008 for their work on a low-cost (webcam) headmounted corneal reflection based solution. Best of all the software can be downloaded which will directly benefit those who are in need but cannot afford the state-of-the-art systems currently on the market. As demonstrated by the video below it is capable of running grid-based interfaces, thus it should be adequate for GazeTalk and similar.

View on YouTube

An Unobtrusive Method for Gaze Tracking (N. Chitrik & Y. Schwartzburg)

Nava Chitrik and Yuliy Schwartzburg have in partial fulfillment of their Senior Design Project Requirements constructed a low-cost approach for remote eye tracking at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Electrical Engineering Department.

"The line of a person's gaze is known to have many important applications in artificial intelligence (AI) and video conferencing but determining where a user is looking is still a very challenging problem. Traditionally, gaze trackers have been implemented with devices worn around the user's head, but more recent advances in the field use unobtrusive methods, i.e. an external video camera, to obtain information about where a person is looking. We have developed a simplified gaze tracking system using a single camera and a single point source mounted compactly in the view of the user, a large simplification over previous methods which have used a plurality of each. Furthermore, our algorithms are robust enough to allow head motion and our image processing functions are designed to extract data even from low-resolution or noisy video streams. Our system also has the computational advantage of working with very small image sizes, reducing the amount of resources needed for gaze tracking, freeing them up for applications that might utilize this information.

To reiterate: The main differences between this implementation and similar implementations are that this system uses a histogram method as opposed to edge detection to work with very low resolution video extremely quickly. However, it requires an infrared camera and infrared LED's. (Which can be purchased for less than 25 dollars online.)"

View on YouTube