A skeleton-based approach to analyzing oculomotor behavior when viewing animated characters

Abstract

Knowing what people look at and understanding how they analyze the dynamic gestures of their peers is an exciting challenge. In this context, we propose a new approach to quantifying and visualizing the oculomotor behavior of viewers watching the movements of animated characters in dynamic sequences. Using this approach, we were able to illustrate, on a ‘heat mesh’, the gaze distribution of one or several viewers, i.e., the time spent on each part of the body, and to visualize viewers' timelines, which are linked to the heat mesh. Our approach notably provides an ‘intuitive’ overview combining the spatial and temporal characteristics of the gaze pattern, thereby constituting an efficient tool for quickly comparing the oculomotor behaviors of different viewers. The functionalities of our system are illustrated through two use case experiments with 2D and 3D animated media sources, respectively.