Pinch, Click, or Dwell: Comparing Different Selection Techniques for Eye-Gaze-Based Pointing in Virtual Reality

Abstract

While a pinch action is gaining popularity for selection of virtual objects in eye-gaze-based systems, it is still unknown how well this method performs compared to other popular alternatives, e.g., a button click or a dwell action. To determine pinch's performance in terms of execution time, error rate, and throughput, we implemented a Fitts' law task in Virtual Reality (VR) where the subjects pointed with their (eye-)gaze and selected / activated the targets by pinch, clicking a button, or dwell. Results revealed that although pinch was slower, made more errors, and had less throughput compared to button clicks, none of these differences were significant. Dwell exhibited the least errors but was significantly slower and achieved less throughput compared to the other conditions. Based on these findings, we conclude that the pinch gesture is a reasonable alternative to button clicks for eye-gaze-based VR systems.