Tutor Meeting – During my personal tutor meeting I had questions about the presentation of my research answered and we talked about how to take my general project idea of ” Using Eye-Tracking technology as a means for accessibility in video games ” and turn it into something more specific by targeting specific groups and select types of disabilities as well as a specific game/type.

Resources

• Eyeware blog
• Tobii
• Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training
• Bureau of Internet Accessibility
• Eyegaze

Anatomy

• The brain processes images through light-sensing cells, these cells are called cone cells and are responsible for the collection of visual data through light.
• The fovea is the region with the highest visual sharpness due to its concentration of cone cells, it is small
• Outside the fovea is the region responsible for our peripheral vision, which due to a lower concentration of cone cells causes our blurrier vision

Movement

• Fixations occur when the eye stops to collect data
• Saccades are fast “jumps” that the eye performs between fixations (i.e. jumping from looking at two static objects)
• Smooth pursuit is the eye movement that occurs when looking at and following a moving target
  

Applications

• Tobii Dynavox Windows Control – allows users to control and navigate through windows using the Tobii eye tracker and a dedicated interface
• The Tobii Eye tracker 5 provides integration for games, specifically first and third person shooters, allowing users to move the camera view in game depending on where they look.
• Bureau of Internet Accessibility is pushing and creating guidelines for appropriately structured website interfaces to aid eye tracker users with more comfortable navigation.
• There have been video games created specifically for integration with eye tracking technology – Before your Eyes
• Motor impairment by ALS or Cerebral Palsy causes individuals to lose access to text to speech systems as a means of communication, with eye tracking and systems designed by Tobii and Eyegaze these individuals can now type using their eyes

Reflection

Through my research I have found that one of my initial ideas including the use of an eye tracking device as a mean of controlling the camera in video games has been touched on by Tobii, I am now thinking of using a virtual display of buttons that users can look at to control actions that would originally be done through a keyboard instead of camera control. Similar to how Tobii Dynavox can be used as an interface to control windows or swapping to a more OpenCV based project, more specifically creating an application that allows people to draw contactless using their webcams, I will ask my personal tutor about this in my next meeting.