<i>ceCursor</i>, a contextual eye cursor for general pointing in windows environments

Abstract

Eye gaze interaction for disabled people is often dealt with by designing ad-hoc interfaces, in which the big size of their elements compensates for both the inaccuracy of eye trackers and the instability of the human eye. Unless solutions for reliable eye cursor control are employed, gaze pointing in ordinary graphical operating environments is a very difficult task. In this paper we present an eye-driven cursor for MS Windows which behaves differently according to the context. When the user's gaze is perceived within the desktop or a folder, the cursor can be discretely shifted from one icon to another. Within an application window or where there are no icons, on the contrary, the cursor can be continuously and precisely moved. Shifts in the four directions (up, down, left, right) occur through dedicated buttons. To increase user awareness of the currently pointed spot on the screen while continuously moving the cursor, a replica of the spot is provided within the active direction button, resulting in improved pointing performance.