Evaluating eyegaze targeting to improve mouse pointing for radiology tasks

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Ergonomics

Background:

• Radiologists use scroll mice for medical image navigation, leading to repetitive strain injuries.
• Analyzing 3D medical volumes (MRI, CT) involves thousands of daily mouse clicks, causing wrist fatigue.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a dynamic control-to-display (C-D) gain mouse movement method.
• To reduce mouse click targeting time and improve efficiency in radiological workstations.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of eyegaze tracking in predicting target positions for enhanced mouse control.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a dynamic C-D gain mouse movement method controlled by an eyegaze tracker.
• Adjusted C-D gain based on the distance to the target.
• Conducted theoretical and experimental studies with known targets.
• Performed an experiment with 12 participants for unknown target positions.

Main Results:

• Theoretical and experimental studies showed up to a 15% reduction in mouse movement time to known targets.
• Eyegaze-predicted target positioning improved pointing performance by 8% in realistic scenarios.
• The dynamic C-D gain method reduced error rates compared to traditional mouse movement.

Conclusions:

• The dynamic C-D gain mouse movement method, guided by eyegaze, enhances pointing performance.
• This approach offers a potential solution to reduce physical strain and improve efficiency for radiologists.
• Eyegaze-assisted dynamic gain control is a promising advancement for medical image analysis workstations.