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Immersive, interactive virtual reality (VR) experiences rely on eye tracking data for a variety of applications. However, eye trackers assume that the user's eyes move in a coordinated way. We investigate how the violation of this assumption impacts the performance and subjective experience of users with strabismus and amblyopia. Our investigation follows a case study approach by analyzing in depth the qualitative and quantitative data collected during an interactive VR game by a small number of users with these visual impairments. Our findings reveal the ways in which assumptions about the default functioning of the eye can discourage or even exclude otherwise enthusiastic users from immersive VR. This study thus opens a new frontier for eye tracking research and practice.
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Estimating Perceptual Depth Changes with Eye Vergence and Interpupillary Distance using an Eye Tracker in Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) technology has advanced to include eye-tracking, allowing novel research, such as investigating how our visual system coordinates eye movements with changes in perceptual depth. The purpose of this study was to examine whether eye tracking could track perceptual depth changes during a visual discrimination task. We derived two depth-dependent variables from eye tracker data: eye vergence angle (EVA) and interpupillary distance (IPD). As hypothesized, our results revealed that shifting gaze from near-to-far depth significantly decreased EVA and increased IPD, while the opposite pattern was observed while shifting from far-to-near. Importantly, the amount of change in these variables tracked closely with relative changes in perceptual depth, and supported the hypothesis that eye tracker data may be used to infer real-time changes in perceptual depth in VR. Our method could be used as a new tool to adaptively render information based on depth and improve the VR user experience.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1937565
- PAR ID:
- 10390194
- Editor(s):
- Blascheck, Tanja; Bradshaw, Jessica; Vrzakova, Hana
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 7
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3517031.3529632
