Gaze+touch vs. Touch: What’s the trade-off when using gaze to extend touch to remote displays?

Abstract

Direct touch input is employed on many devices, but it is inherently restricted to displays that are reachable by the user. Gaze input as a mediator can extend touch to remote displays-using gaze for remote selection, and touch for local manipulation-but at what cost and benefit? In this paper, we investigate the potential trade-off with four experiments that empirically compare remote Gaze+touch to standard touch. Our experiments investigate dragging, rotation, and scaling tasks. Results indicate that Gaze+touch is, compared to touch, (1) equally fast and more accurate for rotation and scaling, (2) slower and less accurate for dragging, and (3) enables selection of smaller targets. Our participants confirm this trend, and are positive about the relaxed finger placement of Gaze+touch. Our experiments provide detailed performance characteristics to consider for the design of Gaze+touch interaction of remote displays. We further discuss insights into strengths and drawbacks in contrast to direct touch.