GazeBreath: Input Method Using Gaze Pointing and Breath Selection

Abstract

Gaze input is a promising input method that allows intuitive and fast pointing. There are two phases in gaze input: pointing and selection. In the pointing phase, the cursor follows the eye movement to the target object, whereas in the selection phase, the user clicks a button to generate the next event. Switching between the two phases is a general problem in gaze input. In this study, we propose a method for selection by applying an additional modality, namely breathing. In the proposed system, we measured the time of inhalation and exhalation from the change in the nose and mouth temperature observed by a thermal camera. Using this time, we judge which phase the user is in. Through user studies, we found that our method enables selection at a speed not quite inferior to the conventional method. In addition, this method has the advantage of allowing multiple selection commands.