GazeScale: Towards General Gaze-Based Interaction in Public Places

Gaze-based interaction has until now been almost an exclusive prerogative of the assistive field, as it is considered not sufficiently performing compared to traditional communication methods based on keyboards, pointing devices, and touch screens. However, situations such as the one we are experiencing now due to the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the importance of touchless communication, to minimize the spread of the disease. In this paper, as an example of the potential pervasive use of eye tracking technology in public contexts, we propose and study five interfaces for a gaze-controlled scale, to be used in supermarkets to weigh fruits and vegetables. Given the great heterogeneity of potential users, the interaction must be as simple and intuitive as possible and occur without the need for calibration. The experiments carried out confirm that this goal is achievable and show strengths and weaknesses of the five interfaces.