EYERES - Forecasting, Evoking und Exploiting Eye Movements and Blinks for Redirection Systems

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Markus Lappe; Professor Dr. Frank Steinicke
• Subject Area: Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing ; Human Factors, Ergonomics, Human-Machine Systems
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 511498220

Locomotion, the act of moving from one location to another, is one of the most fundamental and important activities of our daily life. Control of locomotion relies on constant multisensory feedback by proprioceptive, vestibular and visual senses. Using natural locomotion to navigate in virtual reality (VR), in which users are immersed in computer-generated virtual environments (VEs), remains a challenge since usually the available tracked space is limited and, therefore, limits the walkable space in the VE. Redirected walking (RDW) is a technique, which guides users on physical paths, which might vary from the paths they perceive in the VE, and, therefore, provides a potential solution to this problem. However, current RDW techniques still require significant space. Eye movements are important when trying to understand the visual control of locomotion, however, in the most current implementations of RDW, eye movements are neglected. In this project, we propose to leverage aspects of this relationship to improve immersive VR technology. The goal of this project is to better understand the complex relation of eye movements, blinks as well as gaze and locomotion in immersive VR to improve natural-walking experiences in VEs. In interdisciplinary research cooperation between computer science and psychology, we plan to forecast, evoke and exploit eye movements and blinks for RDW systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Eike Langbehn
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Gerd Bruder