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Enhancing Cultural Heritage Engagement through Eye Gaze Locomotion in Virtual Reality

Pops, Henrico (2025) Enhancing Cultural Heritage Engagement through Eye Gaze Locomotion in Virtual Reality.

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Abstract:Cultural heritage institutions are increasingly seeking ways to make their collections accessible and engaging for younger audiences. This research investigates how eye gaze-based locomotion methods might improve usability and presence in Immersive Virtual Reality (Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR)) exhibitions, using the HERE: Black in Rembrandt’s Time exhibition as a case study. The exhibition presents Black individuals as central figures in 17th-century Dutch art, offering narratives about representation and diversity that could potentially resonate with adolescent visitors. Preliminary studies with adolescents revealed significant challenges with traditional controller-based navigation in IVR. The participants struggled to understand the controls and became distracted by the technology itself rather than engaging with the exhibition content. These observations suggested that navigation barriers needed to be addressed before meaningful engagement with cultural narratives could occur. This research examines whether eye gaze-based locomotion methods could provide more intuitive navigation, potentially allowing users to focus on exhibition content rather than interface mechanics. Two methods were developed and compared: direct eye gaze teleportation, where users instantly moved to locations they looked at, and eye gaze portal-based locomotion, where gazing at paintings generated portals that users physically walked through. A within-subjects study with 29 participants (mainly university students aged 18- 28) evaluated both methods using physical movement tracking, presence questionnaires (IGroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ)), System Usability Scale (System Usability Scale (SUS)), and qualitative feedback. The eye gaze portal method was associated with more physical movement and higher spatial presence scores, while the teleportation method received slightly higher usability ratings. In particular, participants using either eye gaze method spent considerably more time viewing artworks compared to data from previous studies using controller-based navigation (approximately 109-116 seconds versus 28 seconds in the first three minutes). Although this comparison involves different groups of participants and conditions, the magnitude of the difference suggests that removing distractions related to the controller may facilitate greater attention to the exhibition content. The research also documented how participants maintained conventional museum behaviors in the virtual environment, standing at traditional viewing distances despite the freedom provided by virtual reality. This persistence of familiar behavioral patterns indicates that users apply existing mental frameworks even in novel technological contexts. Both locomotion methods demonstrated acceptable usability levels, though neither proved universally superior. The optimal choice appears to depend on specific exhibition goals and user preferences. These findings establish the foundations for future research investigating whether improved navigation usability translates to increased appreciation of the diversity narratives presented in cultural heritage exhibitions. Although this study focused on the fundamental challenge of intuitive navigation, it represents the necessary foundation for examining more complex educational and cultural outcomes in subsequent research with adolescents.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Programme:Interaction Technology MSc (60030)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107057
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