On November 14, 2024, Lida Huang will present her PhD thesis at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Stockholm University. The title of the thesis is “Accessible Artistic Visual Expression Via Eye Tracking”.

PhD student: Lida Huang, DSV
Opponent: Lina Eklund, Uppsala University
Main supervisor: Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari, DSV
Supervisors: Sindri Magnusson and Thomas Westin, DSV

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The defence takes place at DSV in Kista, starting at 13:00 pm.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the use of eye tracking to enable motor-disabled people to express their ideas visually through free-eye drawing. While recent research has yielded state-of-the-art results in unimodal gaze control for free-eye drawing, it was found that there are still limitations such as limited functionality, conflicts between observation and drawing, and brush tailing issues.

To address these challenges, this thesis uncovers the theories behind these challenges and proposes novel solutions, including a free-eye drawing application with a smooth-pursuit based gaze control method, gaze-based UI design, a double-blink gaze gesture, and advanced adoption with artificial intelligence. Surveys, experiments, and field studies were conducted to assess the system's performance and usability compared to mainstream gaze-control and hand drawing methods.

The results show that the proposed solutions provide efficient interaction and the ability to create graphics at the level of a hand sketch for motor-disabled people. Overall, this thesis contributes first-hand user experience reports from eye tracker users and a robust and professional accessible solution for artistic visual expression, and highlights valuable design considerations for future developments in gaze interaction.

Keywords: Eye tracking, gaze control, drawing, accessibility