Real Time Gaze Interaction with a MiddleVR and Unity Based CAVE

Abstract. Research in human spatial cognition has benefited from the advent of virtual environment technology [1], including the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment [2]. Eye tracking has also become a common method for addressing different topics in spatial cognition research [3]. Although CAVEs with real time gaze interaction [4] have been constructed for research in social interaction [5], such as the EyeCVE [6], [7], this type of system has not been designed for research in spatial cognition. We present a MiddleVR and Unity based framework that enables real time gaze interaction with the CAVE and lays the foundation for future experiments in spatial cognition. Users of this framework will benefit from the realistic physics and rendering capabilities of the Unity game engine as well as the configurability of hardware (e.g., control devices, trackers) using MiddleVR.

This semester thesis was conducted with the Chair of Cognitive Science and Computer Graphics Laboratory of ETH Zurich. Supervised by Iva Barisic, Dr. Tyler Thrash, Prof. Dr. Christoph Hölscher and Prof. Dr. Markus Gross. Thesis available upon request.

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