The Power of Social Gaze in Games, Michael Lankes

Description

Gaze-based interactions have found their way into the games domain. "AAA games," such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, support eye-tracking devices to grant players a more natural form of game interaction. Furthermore, hardware devices (e.g., PlayStation VR 2) indicate that this technology might play an essential role in the following years. Currently, many gaze-supported games use gaze input as a supporting element and, in some cases, as a complete replacement for mouse input and game controllers. Besides that, the inclusion of gaze has the potential to enrich social interactions by adding a valuable channel of non-verbal communication between players. Social gaze regulates information flow, turn-taking, and mediates shared attention on an area of interest. Gazing at an object during an interaction can also establish a mutual understanding of what is being discussed. In this talk, the concept of social gaze will be introduced, and different case studies will be presented that illustrate the design potentials and pitfalls. The talk shall provide insights for researchers and designers that are interested in games in general and that are keen on employing and investigating social gaze in their research projects.

Period	12 Apr 2022
Event type	Guest talk
Location	AustriaShow on map