An exploratory study of eye typing fundamentals: dwell time, text entry rate, errors, and workload

  • Authors:
  • Kari-Jouko Räihä;Saila Ovaska

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland;University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Although eye typing (typing on an on-screen keyboard via one's eyes as they are tracked by an eye tracker) has been studied for more than three decades now, we still know relatively little about it from the users' point of view. Standard metrics such as words per minute and keystrokes per character yield information only about the effectiveness of the technology and the interaction techniques developed for eye typing. We conducted an extensive study with almost five hours of eye typing per participant and report on extended qualitative and quantitative analysis of the relationship of dwell time, text entry rate, errors made, and workload experienced by the participants. The analysis method is comprehensive and stresses the need to consider different metrics in unison. The results highlight the importance of catering for individual differences and lead to suggestions for improvements in the interface.