2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Solving the Midas Touch problem in object selection with eye tracking
| Project/Area Number |
20K20866
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
富松 江梨佳 九州大学, 芸術工学研究院, 特別研究員 (20584668)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-07-30 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | eye tracking / dwell time / object selection / eye gaze / age differences |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Onscreen gaze-based object selection or activation with the use of an eye tracker typically requires a dwell time: a minimum amount of object gaze time necessary for its selection to occur. Dwell time is often uniformly set and varies greatly with the type of user interface. Short dwell times are prone to the Midas touch problem, i.e., the unwanted selection of an object by unintendedly gazing upon it in search for the intended object. Long dwell times, by contrast, may lead to a sluggish interface performance and user dissatisfaction. Earlier in this project we showed that gaze-based selection of 4-object sequences consisting of either visual icons, dot patterns, or alphanumeric objects occurs most efficiently with a dwell time of about 600 ms for relatively young users. The goal this year was to establish whether dwell time varies with age. Experiments with three age groups (<35 years of age, 35-55 years of age, and 56-75 years of age) indeed showed that 1) gaze-based input mistakes were made mainly at dwell times of 200 and 400 ms, showing the Midas Touch effect; and 2) while viewers <35 years of age preferred a 600-ms dwell time, elderly viewers of 56-75 years of age preferred a longer dwell time of 800 ms; 3) these trends occurred regardless of object type (i.e., visual icons, dot patterns, or alphanumeric objects. Together, this shows that gaze-based object selection, for example for eye typing or PIN input, can be achieved with just two dwell time settings for viewers of any age: 600 or 800 ms.
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