Study on Gaze Direction Perception of Face Image Displayed on Rotatable Flat Display

Abstract

A long-standing challenge of video-mediated communication systems is to correctly represent remote participant gaze direction in local environments. A telepresence robot with a movable display that shows the face of a remote participant is a promising approach for solving this issue. Researchers generally consider that display orientation is effective for local participants to properly estimate the gaze direction of remote participants. We investigate how subjects estimate gaze direction of a remote participant ("Looker") when his/her face is displayed on a rotatable flat display. Our experiment reveals that both the Looker's head-eye rotation in the display and display rotation affect subject estimation, but the effect of the display rotation is relatively small. Furthermore, we reveal that subjects tend to overestimate Looker gaze direction. Based on our results, we propose a design implication for a telepresence robot to reduce overestimation and properly represent the remote participant gaze direction.