May 2, 2023, PhD student Lida Huang will present her ongoing work on “Accessible Artistic Visual Expression Via Eye Tracking”. The seminar takes place at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Stockholm University.

Respondent: Lida Huang, DSV
Opponent: Veronica Sundstedt, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Main supervisor: Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari, DSV
Supervisors: Thomas Westin och Sindri Magnusson, DSV
Professor closest to the subject: Robert Ramberg, DSV

Contact Lida Huang

Abstract

This thesis explores the use of eye tracking to enable motor disabled people to express their ideas visually through free-eye drawing. While recent research has yielded state-of-the-art results in unimodal gaze control for free-eye drawing, this thesis found that there are still limitations such as limited functionality, conflicts between observation and drawing, and brush tailing issues.

To address these challenges, this thesis uncovers the theories behind these challenges and proposes novel solutions, including a free-eye drawing application with a smooth-pursuit based gaze control method, gaze-based UI design, a double-blink gaze gesture, and advanced adoption with artificial intelligence. Surveys, experiments, and field studies were conducted to assess the system’s performance and usability compared to mainstream gaze-control and hand drawing methods.

The results show that the proposed solutions provide efficient interaction and the ability to create hand-sketch-level graphics for motor disabled people. Overall, this thesis contributes a first-hand user experiences report among eye tracker users and a robust and professional accessible artistic visual expression solution, highlighting valuable design considerations for future developments in gaze interaction.

Keywords: Eye tracking, gaze control, drawing, accessibility