Eyefeel & Eye chime: A face to face communication environment by augmenting eye gaze information

In face-to-face communication, humans convey nonverbal information to supplement verbal language. Eye gaze in particular is a critical element. While a variety of studies on communication support focusing on eye gaze have been performed in the past, most of these studies have aimed to support communications between people in remote locations. In contrast, this study aims to extend and transform gaze to lower the hurdles of establishing communication, or to induce a new form of communication through gaze in face-to-face communication. As a specific proposal, in this study we developed two types of systems: Eyefeel, which converts and delivers the gaze of another as tactile information, and EyeChime, which produces a spatial presentation by converting events such as gazing at another or eyes contact to sound. The preliminary study suggested that these interfaces induced communication through active use of eye gaze, gave users the opportunity to increase the amount of time gazes were sent to the conversation partner, and that the hurdles to make eye contact were lowered. In this study, we discuss the design and implementation of the system as well as the details of its use.