Development of gaze tracking interface for controlling 3D contents

Nowadays, the stereoscopic 3D technology is being used in variety of applications including, but not limited to, architecture, design, games, and medicine. The technologies that utilize the concepts of virtual reality have the tendency to be generic and provide the users with a realistic interaction with the environment. In order to control stereoscopic images, conventional methods had to use devices such as keyboard and/or mouse for the input control signal. However, it is challenging for users to control stereoscopic images by using these types of devices and it is difficult to obtain a desired accuracy due to the errors existing in the device. In addition, the major factor is that these methods do not allow users to feel the contents in a realistic manner. In this paper, a gaze tracking interface (line of sight) is developed to control the stereoscopic 3D contents. The proposed method is natural, intuitive, and more efficient compared to the conventional methods that use keyboard and mouse. Controlling various 3D contents including S3D games, tele-operated surgery, military training, and pilot simulation will be achievable through the proposed method.