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.
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DOI
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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
Research Institute