Comparing Gaze Cues: Avatars versus Humans in Allocating Visual Attention : Eye Tracking Case Study

Abstract: When designing websites or applications, being able to allocate visual attention to specific parts of an interface is important. One powerful tool that can be used for this is Gaze Cues, which is a social cue that makes use of gaze direction to allocate visual attention in the same direction. Gaze mechanisms such as gaze cues have been tested on virtual characters, also known as avatars, and show potential. This study aims to compare how gaze cues with avatars allocate visual attention compared to gaze cues with humans. An eye tracking case study with 30 participants was conducted, with gaze cues presented from either avatars or humans, measuring time to first fixations on a certain object. In combination with post-session interviews, results showed that there was no significant difference if the stimulus that presented the gaze cue was human or avatar. These results imply that avatars can make use of gaze cues as effectively as humans, to allocate visual attention in settings where they appear such as video games, animated series and/or animated movies.