Gaze perception and awareness in smart devices

• Eye contact and gaze awareness play a significant role for conveying emotions and intentions duringface-to-face conversation. Humans can perceive each other's gaze quite naturally and accurately. However,the gaze awareness/perception are ambiguous during video teleconferencing performed by computer-based devices (such as laptops, tablet, and smart-phones). The reasons for this ambiguity are the(i) camera position relative to the screen and (ii) 2D rendition of 3D human face i.e., the 2D screen isunable to deliver an accurate gaze during video teleconferencing. To solve this problem, researchers haveproposed different hardware setups with complex software algorithms. The most recent solution foraccurate gaze perception employs 3D interfaces, such as 3D screens and 3D face-masks. However, todaycommonly used video teleconferencing devices are smart devices with 2D screens. Therefore, there is aneed to improve gaze awareness/perception in these smart devices. In this work, we have revisited thequestion; how to improve a remote user's gaze awareness among his/her collaborators. Our hypothesis isthat ‘an accurate gaze perception can be achieved by the ‘3D embodiment’ of a remote user's head gestureduring video teleconferencing’. We have prototyped an embodied telepresence system (ETS) for the 3Dembodiment of a remote user's head. Our ETS is based on a 3-DOF neck robot with a mounted smartdevice (tablet PC). The electromechanical platform in combination with a smart device is a novel setupthat is used for studying gaze awareness/perception in 2D screen-based smart devices during videoteleconferencing. Two important gaze-related issues are considered in this work; namely (i) ‘Mona-LisaGaze Effect’ – the gaze is always directed at the person independent of his position in the room, and (ii)‘Gaze Awareness/Faithfulness’ – the ability to perceive an accurate spatial relationship between theobserving person and the object by an actor. Our results confirm that the 3D embodiment of a remoteuser head not only mitigates the Mona Lisa gaze effect but also supports three levels of gaze faithfulness,hence, accurately projecting the human gaze in distant space.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Robotteknik och automation (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Robotics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datorseende och robotik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Vision and Robotics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Mona-Lisa gaze effect

gaze awareness

computer-mediated communication

eye contact

head gesture

gaze faithfulness

embodied telepresence system

tablet PC

HCI

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