Investigating Gaze Attraction to Bottom-Up Visual Features for Visual Aids in Games

Abstract: Context. Video games usually have visual aids guiding the players in 3D-environments. The designers need to know which visual feature is the most effective in attracting a player's gaze and what features are preferred by players as visual aid. Objectives. This study investigates which feature of the bottom-upvisual attention process attracts the gaze faster. Methods. With the use of the Tobii T60 eye tracking system, a user study with 32 participants was conducted in a controlled environment. An experiment was created where each participant looked at a slideshow consisting of 18 pictures with 8 objects on each picture. One object per picture had a bottom-up visual feature applied that made it stand out as different. Video games often have a goal or a task and to connect the experiment to video games a goal was set. This goal was to find the object with the visual feature applied. The eye tracker measured the gaze while the participant was trying to find the object. A survey to determine which visual feature was preferredby the players was also made. Results. The result showed that colour was the visual feature with the shortest time to attract attention. It was closely followed by intensity,motion and a pulsating highlight. Small size had the longest attraction time. Results also showed that the preferred visual feature for visual aid by the players was intensity and the least preferred was orientation. Conclusions. The results show that visual features with contrast changes in the texture seems to draw attention faster, with colour the fastest, than changes on the object itself. These features were also the most preferred as visual aid by the players with intensity the most preferred. If this study was done on a larger scale within a 3D-environment, this experiment could show promise to help designers in decisions regarding visual aid in video games.