Cyclopean vs. Dominant Eye in Gaze-Interface-Tracking

Abstract

User-centered design questions in gaze interfaces have been explored in multitude empirical investigations. Interestingly, the question of what eye should be the input device has never been studied. We compared tracking accuracy between the “cyclopean” (i.e., midpoint between eyes) dominant and non-dominant eye. In two experiments, participants performed tracking tasks. In Experiment 1, participants did not use a crosshair. Results showed that mean distance from target was smaller with cyclopean than with dominant or non-dominant eyes. In Experiment 2 participants controlled a crosshair with their cyclopean, dominant and non-dominant eye intermittently and had to align the crosshair with the target. Overall tracking accuracy was highest with cyclopean eye, yet similar between cyclopean and dominant eye in the second half of the experiment. From a theoretical viewpoint, our findings correspond with the cyclopean eye theory of egocentric direction and lend support to the hemispheric laterality approach of eye dominance. From a practical viewpoint, we show that what eye to use as input should be a design consideration in gaze interfaces.

Dynamics of eye dominance behavior in virtual reality

“…However, eye dominance has not been given any significant attention. Elbaum et al ( 4 ) considered eye-tracking from the dominant versus the cyclopean eye but assumed a static dominant eye. Meng et al ( 8 ) proposed to optimize foveated rendering by giving priority to the dominant eye, optimizing computing resources without compromising perceived visual quality.…”

Gaze+Hold: Eyes-only Direct Manipulation with Continuous Gaze Modulated by Closure of One Eye

“…The temporary switching of a pointer by discrete input is pervasive in state of the art interfaces for dragging, panning, zooming and other forms of continuous manipulation, and Gaze+Hold opens up a design space for such tasks to be performed with just the eyes. The eyes are distinct in that either eye can be used to gaze and point while the other is closed, although most people have a dominant eye [Elbaum et al 2017]. This leads to specific design considerations for Gaze+Hold that we develop through exploration of range of novel eyes-only manipulation techniques for common continuous input tasks.…”