Exploring the Feasibility of Gaze-Based Navigation Across Path Types

TL;DR

This study addresses the feasibility of gaze-based navigation in immersive XR by comparing three representative path geometries—linear, narrowing, and circular—through a controlled within-subjects experiment. It employs a VR eye-tracking setup to quantify performance via movement time and re-entry counts, providing actionable design guidance. Key findings show that path curvature, especially in circular trajectories, fundamentally modulates speed and accuracy, and that wider path lanes can mitigate these costs, whereas widening only at the start of a narrowing path has limited benefit. The work offers practical implications for designing gaze-driven navigation in VR/AR, highlighting curvature as a primary design consideration and informing future gaze-interaction research and system development.

Abstract

Gaze input, as a modality inherently conveying user intent, offers intuitive and immersive experiences in extended reality (XR). With eye-tracking now being a standard feature in modern XR headsets, gaze has been extensively applied to tasks such as selection, text entry, and object manipulation. However, gaze based navigation despite being a fundamental interaction task remains largely underexplored. In particular, little is known about which path types are well suited for gaze navigation and under what conditions it performs effectively. To bridge this gap, we conducted a controlled user study evaluating gaze-based navigation across three representative path types: linear, narrowing, and circular. Our findings reveal distinct performance characteristics and parameter ranges for each path type, offering design insights and practical guidelines for future gaze-driven navigation systems in XR.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: The red sphere indicates the user’s gaze cursor, while the green and blue spheres denote the task’s start and end positions, respectively. The path width is defined by the diameter of the target sphere. Participants manipulate the gaze cursor to guide the target sphere from the start area to the target area along the specified trajectory. (a) Constant-width Linear Path Task; (b) Narrowing Path Task; (c) Constant-Width Circular Path Task.
• Figure 2: Circular path: mean steering time (left) and re-entry times (right) across amplitude and width. Error bars = SEM.
• Figure 3: Narrow path: mean steering time (left) and re-entry times (right) across start and end widths. Error bars = SEM.
• Figure 4: Rectangle path: mean steering time (left) and re-entry times (right) across circumference and width. Error bars = SEM.