Gazing into a Second Life: Gaze-driven adventures, control barriers, and the need for disability privacy in an online virtual world.
Date
2008
Authors
Vickers, Stephen
Istance, Howell
Bates, R.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
DOI
Volume Title
Publisher
Peer reviewed
Yes
Abstract
Online virtual worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft offer users the chance to
participate in potentially limitless virtual worlds, all via a standard desktop pc, mouse and
keyboard. This paper addresses some of the interaction barriers and privacy concerns that
people with disabilities may encounter when using these worlds, and introduces an avatar
Turing test that should be passed for worlds to be accessible for all users. The paper then
focuses on the needs of high-level motor disabled users who may use gaze control as an input
modality for computer interaction. A taxonomy and survey of interaction are introduced, and
an experiment in gaze based interaction is conducted within these virtual worlds. The results of
the survey highlight the barriers where people with disabilities cannot interact as efficiently as
able-bodied users. Finally, the paper discusses methods for enabling gaze based interaction for
high-level motor disabled users and calls for game designers to consider disabled users when
designing game interfaces.
Description
Keywords
gaze control, disabled users, eye tracking, virtual communities
Citation
Vickers, S.; Bates, R. and Istance, H. (2008) Gazing into a Second Life: Gaze-Driven Adventures, Control Barriers, and the Need for Disability Privacy in an Online Virtual World. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies; ICDVRAT 2008, pp. 151-158