Design and Evaluation of an Open-source Gaze-controlled GUI for Web-browsing

Nowadays, motor-impaired people with Locked-In Syndrome (LIS) use eye-tracking technology to write and to access the web through commands generated by the detection of gaze movements and fixations on a graphical user interface (GUI). However, novel GUI concepts must be designed to further ease the control offered by eye-tracking, making it more responsive and less tiresome. This paper presents and evaluates an open-source standalone GUI design, SightWeb, that fully and easily controls a web browser through gaze movements without any page analysis. Its temporary menu centered in the area of action allows for reduced eye saccade and mental workload. SightWeb was evaluated against a state-of-the-art eye tracking based web interface (The Grid 3 by Thinksmartbox). The results (gaze movements, execution times, user experience questionnaire scores) suggest that SightWeb is quicker to learn and to use, more appreciated and less tiring than a traditional assistive GUI. This shows that the system can be, not only an improved interface for patients, but also an instrumental piece of software for researchers working in related areas.

I. Introduction

Eye-tracking technologies greatly assist the interactions and communication acts of paralyzed people, specially of those only able to control their ocular movements (Locked-In Syndrome, LIS, as in late stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS) [1] . However, few ocular control modalities have been explored so far, with a dearth of guidelines to build gaze-controlled systems [2] . In particular, most gaze commands are based on dwelling [3] (activating a UI item when the user looks at it for a certain time - dwell time) or on eye gestures [4] (e.g., looking from left to right). Gaze control often represents the LIS people’s sole interaction method, thus it is essential to make it easier, quicker and more efficient. Repetitive saccades to command a GUI are tiring [5] and should be limited.