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PURPOSE To describe four cases of varix of the vortex vein ampulla imaged with dynamic echography. METHODS Observational case series of four patients with varix of the vortex vein ampulla diagnosed with ocular examination maneuvers such as digital pressure or Valsalva. Dynamic echography was used to confirm the diagnosis. RESULTS Dynamic echography can quickly and noninvasively show the varix of the vortex vein ampulla disappear with external pressure, or engorge with a Valsalva maneuver or altered gaze directions. CONCLUSION Dynamic echography is very helpful in the establishment of the diagnosis of varix of the vortex vein ampulla and differentiating this benign condition from other retinal or choroidal abnormalities.

Adequate illumination plays an important part in providing a healthy environment for nursing home patients with dementia. With increasing awareness of non-visual responses to light, new approaches to quantifying illuminance have emerged. In the present study, we assessed the illuminance in nursing home dementia units in terms of melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance, a metric which aims to quantify the non-visual physiological effects of light by weighing irradiance according to non-visual photoreception. It is among the most comprehensive studies of light conditions conducted in dementia units in terms of melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance to date, and the first to elucidate seasonal differences in melanopic illumination. Light conditions were assessed in all 15 nursing homes with dedicated long-term dementia units in Bergen municipality (60.39°N), Norway, during summer and winter. Results indicated that seasonal differences and gaze direction had some impact on melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance, but most measurements still fell below even conservative recommendations across seasons. The findings indicate a need for additional light sources that can compensate for limited natural daylight in dementia units. The ubiquity of insufficient melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance in dementia units suggests a role for lighting interventions in future research seeking to improve entrainment, sleep and mental health of dementia unit residents.

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to measure accommodative response when looking at different direction such as downgaze and sidegaze either right or left. Methods : This study was performed with 13 adult males and females(22.40±0.41 years old) no subject had ophthalmic surgery or disease and placed the targets at the primary, 10° and 20° sidegaze, 10° and 20° downgaze, The accommodative responses was measured by a open-field autorefractometer under the distances of 3 m, 1 m and 40 cm that enable consecutive measurement. Results : In all gaze directions as distance became shorter the accommodative response increased. At each viewing distance 1m and 40 cm, the accommodative responses showed the peaks 1.09± 0.10 D in 10° and 2.04±0.11 D in 20° downgaze. respectively, while the lowest accommodative responses were 0.44±0.05 D and 1.54±0.06 D in 20° and 10° sidegaze, which showed statistical differences(p＜0.050). There were significant differences in each viewing direction except for in 10° and 20° sidegaze(p＜0.050). The gaze direction and the accommodative responses were significantly different(p＜0.050). Conclusion : This study demonstrates that the accommodative responses vary with the gaze direction and gaze angle for the same modulating stimulus. Therefore, it is assumed that 20° downgaze makes the object sharper and minimizes the eye fatigue.

Hallmark social activities of humans, such as cooperation and cultural learning, involve eye-gaze signaling through joint attentional interaction and ostensive communication. The gaze-signaling and related cooperative-eye hypotheses posit that humans evolved unique external eye morphology, including exposed white sclera (the white of the eye), to enhance the visibility of eye-gaze for conspecifics. However, experimental evidence is still lacking. This study tested the ability of human and chimpanzee participants to detect the eye-gaze directions of human and chimpanzee images in computerized tasks. We varied the level of brightness and size in the stimulus images to examine the robustness of the eye-gaze directional signal against visually challenging conditions. We found that both humans and chimpanzees detected gaze directions of the human eye better than that of the chimpanzee eye, particularly when eye stimuli were darker and smaller. Also, participants of both species detected gaze direction of the chimpanzee eye better when its color was inverted compared to when its color was normal; namely, when the chimpanzee eye has artificial white sclera. White sclera thus enhances the visibility of eye-gaze direction even across species, particularly in visually challenging conditions. Our findings supported but also critically updated the central premises of the gaze-signaling hypothesis.

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between head and chest movements and gaze direction in both walking and non-walking conditions. In a different approach from existing studies, we aim to analyze behavior when humans intentionally gaze at a certain target from two perspectives: (1) the relationship between gaze and body movements and (2) the effects of walking on body motion. We performed three experiments: fixed target scenes (Experiment 1), moving target scenes (Experiment 2) and more realistic gazing scenes (Experiment 3). The experimental results showed a linear relationship between the head and chest directions and gaze directions regardless of walking, non-walking situations, or target movements, and stronger gaze-head correlations than gaze-chest correlations. Further, we found effects of walking that constrained rotational body movements, and that body parts with larger moments were easily affected by walking. These results suggest that the findings of existing studies in non-walking situations may be applicable to walking situations directly or with simple modifications.

Purpose(1) To assess the morphology and 3D displacements of the eye globe and optic nerve (ON) in adduction/abduction using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). (2) To assess differences between healthy emmetropic and highly myopic (HM) subjects.MethodsMRI volumes of both eyes from 18 controls and 20 HM subjects in primary gaze, abduction and adduction (15°) were postprocessed. All ONs were manually-segmented and fitted to a 3D curve to assess ON tortuosity. ON displacements were evaluated in 4 quasicoronal planes which were perpendicular to the ON in primary gaze and 3 mm apart.ResultsAxial length was higher in the HM group (28.62±2.60 vs 22.84±0.89 mm; pConclusionsThe adjusted tortuosity of the ON was significantly lower in HM eyes, suggesting that eyes destined toward HM exhibited higher ON traction forces during eye movements before the onset of myopia. Our ON metrics may be valuable to explore a potential link between eye movements and axial elongation.

Interactions based on the learners’ state of understanding and their attitudes toward tasks are considered important for realising a support system for collaborative learning. In this study, as a first step, we tried to detect whether the learner’s state is Passive in the ICAP theory from the data obtained during collaborative learning. We actually conducted an experiment of collaborative learning between participants and obtained data on facial features, gaze directions, and speech state during the experiment. Based on these data, we investigated clues to classify the status of ICAP as either Passive or not. As a result, we were able to find several candidates. On the other hand, in the state classification of participants’ states using these independent variables, it was not possible to show high accuracy. In future experiments, we plan to simultaneously measure physiological indices as a clue to estimate participants’ internal state.

The use of information provided by the geomagnetic field (GMF) for navigation is widespread across the animal kingdom. At the same time, the magnetic sense is one of the least understood senses. Here, we review evidence for magnetoreception in Hymenoptera. We focus on experiments aiming to shed light on the role of the GMF for navigation. Both honeybees and desert ants are well-studied experimental models for navigation, and both use the GMF for specific navigational tasks under certain conditions. Cataglyphis desert ants use the GMF as a compass cue for path integration during their initial learning walks to align their gaze directions towards the nest entrance. This represents the first example for the use of the GMF in an insect species for a genuine navigational task under natural conditions and with all other navigational cues available. We argue that the recently described magnetic compass in Cataglyphis opens up a new integrative approach to understand the mechanisms underlying magnetoreception in Hymenoptera on different biological levels.

SIGNIFICANCE The Welch Allyn SureSight (Welch Allyn, Skaneateles Falls, NY) and Plusoptix PowerRefractor (Plusoptix, Nuremberg, Germany) are often used with infants, but little is known about the repeatability and validity of their peripheral refractive error measurements. Selecting the best instrument will support future refractive error and emmetropization studies. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the validity and repeatability of peripheral refractive error measurements and peripheral refraction profiles measured with the Welch Allyn SureSight and Plusoptix PowerRefractor compared with the criterion standard Grand Seiko WR-5100K (Grand Seiko Co., Hiroshima, Japan). METHODS Cycloplegic (tropicamide 1%) autorefraction was measured in the right eyes of 21 adult subjects (31.4 ± 10.4 years) with the three instruments in randomized order on two separate visits, at least 24 hours apart, centrally, and at 30 and 20° temporal and nasal gaze. RESULTS The SureSight measurements were within 0.24 D and not significantly different from the Grand Seiko WR-5100K in any gaze (P < .65), whereas the PowerRefractor measurements were more myopic by as much as -0.97 D and significantly different in four of the five gaze directions (P < .04). The 95% limits of agreement between occasions by gaze ranged from ±0.38 to ±0.61 D for the SureSight, similar to or slightly better than the WR-5100K (±0.31 to ±1.51 D) and the PowerRefractor (±0.72 to ±1.71 D). There were no significant differences between visits for any instrument in any gaze (P < .94). The repeatability of the SureSight was also better than that for the Grand Seiko when peripheral refraction was represented by quadratic fits to the data. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the Welch Allyn SureSight is the most suitable portable autorefractor to use to monitor peripheral autorefraction based on better repeatability between occasions and better validity compared with the criterion standard Grand Seiko WR-5100K.

Peripheral defocus was experimentally found to control the development of refraction.To evaluate peripheral refraction (PR) of myopic eyes in terms of different means of correction and the direction of gaze.The study examined 128 patients (256 eyes) aged 8-14 years (average 11.07±0.39 years) with myopia from -1.0 to -7.0 (average -3.57±0.27 D). PR was measured without correction, in perifocal (PF), monofocal (MF), progressive glasses (PAL), monofocal soft contact lenses (ΜCL) and after orthokeratological (OCL) correction with the gaze directed straightforward or head angled outward, inward, upward and downward; all measurements were performed using binocular open-field auto ref/keratometer.PR profile without correction and with contact (OCL, ΜCL) correction does not depend on the direction of the gaze. In glasses, peripheral defocus is different with straightforward and skewed gaze directions. OCL forms a significant myopic defocus throughout the periphery of the retina. When using MCL, hyperopic defocus increases in all zones except the extreme temporal. In MF glasses, hyperopic defocus is formed and enhanced in all areas, significantly greater with skewed gaze than with straightforward. In PALs, myopic defocus is formed with gaze directed upward and downward, as well as at the extreme temporal periphery of the retina with straightforward gaze. In all other zones, hypermetropic defocus increases. In PF, in most zones myopic defocus is formed with all gaze directions. The greatest inhibitory effect on myopia progression is provided by OCL (YPR=0.28 D/year) and PF glasses (YPR=0.26 D/year).In contrast to correction with contact lenses, PR in glasses does depend on the direction of gaze. The inhibitory effect of the optics correlates with correction of hypermetropic defocus in myopic eyes.Введение. Периферический дефокус в эксперименте управляет рефрактогенезом. Цель исследования - оценить периферическую рефракцию (ПР) миопических глаз в разных средствах коррекции и при различном направлении взора. Материал и методы. Обследовано 128 пациентов (256 глаз) в возрасте 8-14 лет с миопией от (–)1,0 до (–)7,0. ПР измеряли без коррекции, в перифокальных (ПФО), монофокальных (МФО), прогрессивных очках (ПО), монофокальных мягких контактных линзах (МКЛ) и после ортокератологического воздействия (ОКЛ) с дозированным отклонением взора или поворотом головы кнаружи, кнутри, вверх и вниз с помощью бинокулярного авторефкератометра 'открытого поля'. Результаты. Профиль ПР без коррекции и с контактной (ОКЛ, МКЛ) коррекцией не зависит от направления взора. В очках периферический дефокус различен при взгляде прямо и при отклонении взора. На фоне ОКЛ формируется значительный миопический дефокус по всей периферии сетчатки. В МКЛ во всех зонах, кроме крайней височной, усиливается гиперметропический дефокус. В МФО во всех зонах формируется и усиливается гиперметропический дефокус, больший при отклонении взора, чем при взгляде прямо. В ПО миопический дефокус формируется при взгляде кверху и книзу, а также на крайней височной периферии сетчатки при взгляде прямо. Во всех остальных зонах усиливается гиперметропический дефокус. В ПФО при всех направлениях взора в большинстве переферических зон формируется миопический дефокус. Годичный градиент прогрессирования был наименьшим в ОКЛ (0,28 дптр/год) и ПФО (0,26 дптр/год). Выводы. В отличие от контактной коррекции, ПР в очках зависит от направления взора. Тормозящий эффект оптических средств коррелирует с исправлением существующего в близоруких глазах гиперметропического дефокуса.

Gaze direction is an important cue of the eye region. Previous studies have revealed that oxytocin (OXT) increases orienting to the eye region of face. However, little has been known about the effect of OXT in men and women on the perception of gaze direction particularly when associated with different emotions. We investigated how oxytocin would affect gaze direction judgments for threatening, angry, and neutral facial expressions and whether this effect would be modulated by observers’ sex. We used the cone of direct gaze (CoDG) task. Participants were required to judge the gaze direction of face between directed and averted gaze. Results showed opposing sex-dependent effects of OXT such that OXT, as compared with placebo, tended to decrease the CoDG in men but increase it in women. The CoDG was marginally wider in men than in women in the placebo condition, and however, this difference was abolished following OXT treatment. We also found that the perception of gaze direction varied as a function of emotional expression such that the CoDG for angry and neutral faces was wider than that for fearful faces and the CoDG for angry faces was marginally wider than that for neutral ones. However, there was no significant interaction between treatment and facial expression. Our findings provide the first evidence for sex-dependent effects of OXT on gaze direction perception, suggesting that OXT attenuates the self-referential judgment of gaze directions of others in men and enhances it in women despite differentiated emotions of faces.

································································································································································································································ Purpose: The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of corneal eccentricity on the axial rotation when wearing toric soft contact lenses were worn for certain time and changing the gaze directions. Methods: Toric soft contact lenses with double thin zone design applied on 85 of with-the-rule astigmatic eyes. Then, rotational direction and amount of contact lenses were measured after 15 minutes and 6 hours of lens wear. The difference was further compared and analyzed according to corneal eccentricity. Results: The rotation of toric lens showed a tendency to rotate to temporal direction in all gaze directions except temporal-upper direction in all groups of corneal eccentricity. The amount of lens rotation in the frontal gaze direction exhibited a negative correlation since the amount was decreased with increasing corneal eccentricity after both 15 minutes and 6 hours of lens wearing. In many cases, the cornea with small eccentricity also showed the lens rotation larger than 10 o . The difference in rotational amount after 15 minutes of toric lens wear was small according to the corneal eccentricity however, the change of rotational amount of contact lens according to corneal eccentricity was shown after 6 hours of lens wear. Conclusions: The present study revealed that the amount of axial rotation was largely varied according to the wearer’s corneal eccentricity when wearing toric lens and the rotational amount after certain time of lens was also affected by corneal eccentricity. Thus, it is suggested that the selection of toric soft contact lenses based on corneal eccentricity is necessary.

This paper proposes a novel system to simultaneously capture gaze behavior and the whole body motion of a person experiencing 6-DOF VR contents. This system consists of a VR goggle, eye-trackers attached to the goggle, and multiple Kinects. Measurements of those devices are all described in the consistent global coordinate system. Since the Kinects are robustly calibrated, whichever position and pose a user is located, his/her whole body pose as well as gaze directions is correctly measured. Using this system, we can easily capture gaze behaviors as well as body motion of people under any VR scenes, which is helpful for physiological researches.

Model-based methods for glint-free gaze estimation typically infer eye pose using pupil contours extracted from eye images. Existing methods, however, either ignore or require complex hardware setups to deal with refraction effects occurring at the corneal interfaces. In this work we provide a detailed analysis of the effects of refraction in glint-free gaze estimation using a single near-eye camera, based on the method presented by [Swirski and Dodgson 2013]. We demonstrate systematic deviations in inferred eyeball positions and gaze directions with respect to synthetic ground-truth data and show that ignoring corneal refraction can result in angular errors of several degrees. Furthermore, we quantify gaze direction dependent errors in pupil radius estimates. We propose a novel approach to account for corneal refraction in 3D eye model fitting and by analyzing synthetic and real images show that our new method successfully captures refraction effects and helps to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art approach.

Purpose: The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of tear volume on a change of axial rotation according to wearing time of toric soft contact lens and gaze directions. Method: Toric soft contact lenses with double thin zone design applied on 62 eyes. Then, changes in non invasive tear film break-up time and the rotational direction/amount of lens when changing gaze direction were respectively measured after 15 minutes and 6 hours of lens wear. Results: Lens rotation to temporal direction was more found when changing gaze direction after lens wear. However, its rotation was varied according to wearing time and the subjects' tear volume. Furthermore, the frequency of lens rotation to temporal direction was higher in dry eyes compared with normal eyes at nearly all gaze directions after 15 minutes and 6 hour of lens wear. The rotational amount of lens was generally greater in dry eyes after 15 minutes of lens wear. However, its difference between normal eyes and dry eyes was not great after 6 hours of lens wear. Conclusion: The present study revealed that axial rotation of toric soft contact lens was varied according to the wearer's tear volume and lens rotational patterns at the initial, and extending periods of lens wear were different. The change in rotational pattern of toric soft contact lens from these results means the possibility of visual change after extending lens wear, and the identification of its correlation with tear volume suggests the necessity of considering factors for choosing appropriate toric soft contact lens.

Direct gaze is a potent non-verbal signal that establishes a communicative connection between two individuals, setting the course for further interactions. Although consciously perceived faces with direct gaze have been shown to capture attention, it is unknown whether an attentional preference for these socially meaningful stimuli exists even in the absence of awareness. In two experiments, we recorded participants’ eye movements while they were exposed to faces with direct and averted gaze rendered invisible by interocular suppression. Participants’ inability to correctly guess the occurrence of the faces in a manual forced-choice task demonstrated complete unawareness of the faces. However, eye movements were preferentially directed towards faces with direct compared to averted gaze, indicating a specific sensitivity to others’ gaze directions even without awareness. This oculomotor preference suggests that a rapid and automatic establishment of mutual eye contact constitutes a biological advantage, which could be mediated by fast subcortical pathways in the human brain.

This paper presents an approach to estimate the field of view of human eyes. To achieve this only using the information of the face direction, we focus on characteristics of human vision. More specifically, as the physical characteristics of human vision, we consider a model of the field of view. Also, as the cognitive characteristics of human vision, we assume that humans turns their eyes to moving objects under certain conditions including types of moving objects and their movement. Therefore, to investigate the cognitive characteristics of human vision related to moving objects, we carry out experiments by changing the types and paths of moving objects to investigate what kind of conditions make humans turn their eyes to moving objects. Gaze directions of human subjects are observed through the experiments.

In this paper, we propose a system that presents correct gaze directions of each user in a group-to-group video conference. It is known that gaze direction plays a significant role in face-to-face communication. However, in ordinary video conference systems, there is a problem that gaze directions cannot be correctly transmitted to a user in the other side since the camera is placed on the top or bottom of the display. We propose a method to generate images of each person from an appropriate viewpoint position using Kinect and screen-embedded cameras and to present the images to the user. By estimating each user's gaze direction and rendering the image of the person who the user is looking at from the users' viewpoint position, it is possible to present an image suitable for each user even in a group-to-group situation. We show demonstration of a group-to-group video conference using the proposed system and show that the system can present images suitable for each user.

Previous research has shown that ostracized participants seek inclusive cues, such as gaze directed at them, when trying to reaffiliate. However, instead of seeking reinclusion, ostracized individuals may sometimes withdraw from interactions if not offered an opportunity for reaffiliation. In the current study, after an ostracism manipulation with no reaffiliation opportunity, participants judged whether faces portraying direct gaze or slightly averted gaze (2°–8° to the left and to the right) were looking at them or not. Compared to an inclusion group and a non-social control group, ostracized participants accepted a smaller range of gaze directions as being directed at them, i.e., they had a narrower “cone of gaze”. The width of the gaze cone was equally wide in the inclusion and control groups. We propose that, without an opportunity for reaffiliation, ostracized participants may start to view other people as particularly unapproachable, possibly indicative of a motivational tendency to disengage from interactions.

Gaze direction is a dynamic social signal that provides real-time insight into another person's focus of attention. Gaze adaptation induces aftereffects in the perception of gaze in subsequent faces, typically biasing it away from the adapted direction. Previous studies found that such gaze direction aftereffects persist for about 7 min when repeatedly tested immediately after adaptation, but can survive at least 24 hr when there is no testing immediately after adaptation. These findings suggest that exposure to test faces after adaptation might affect the persistence of gaze direction aftereffects more than the passing of time. The present study systematically established the contributions of time and intervening testing on the longevity of gaze direction aftereffects. Aftereffects were induced and then traced over six postadaptation tests. Participants were assigned to four groups with a delay of either 30 s, 3 min, 5.5 min, or 8 min between adaptation and the first postadaptation test. Aftereffects were strongly affected by the number of preceding postadaptation tests, but unaffected by the delay between adaptation and test, revealing that face exposure affects the longevity of aftereffects more strongly than the passing of time, at least over the time frame studied here. Our findings suggest that exposure to a substantial number of faces with an unbiased distribution of gaze directions may be necessary to overcome gaze direction aftereffects.

In social situations, faces of others can vary simultaneously in gaze and orientation. How these variations affect different kinds of social judgments, such as attractiveness or trustworthiness, is only partly understood. Therefore, we studied how different gaze directions, head angles, but also levels of facial attractiveness affect perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness. We always presented pairs of faces – either two average attractive faces or a highly attractive together with a less attractive face. We also varied gaze and head angles showing faces in three different orientations, front, three-quarter and profile view. In Experiment 1 (N = 62), participants rated averted gaze in three-quarter views as more attractive than in front and profile views, and evaluated faces with direct gaze in front views as most trustworthy. Moreover, faces that were being looked at by another face were seen as more attractive. Independent of the head orientation or gaze direction, highly attractive faces were rated as more attractive and more trustworthy. In Experiment 2 (N = 54), we found that the three-quarter advantage vanished when the second face was blurred during judgments, which demonstrates the importance of the presence of another person-as in a triadic social situation-as well as the importance of their visible gaze. The findings emphasize that social evaluations such as trustworthiness are unaffected by the esthetic advantage of three-quarter views of two average attractive faces, and that the effect of a faces’ attractiveness is more powerful than the more subtle effects of gaze and orientations.

Past research has shown that rapport and cooperation between individuals is related to the level of nonverbal synchrony they achieve in their interactions. This study investigates the extent to which staff and clients with mild to borderline intellectual disability achieve interactional synchrony in daily social interactions. Whilst there has been work examining how staff can adapt their verbal communication to help achieve better mutual understanding, there has been an absence of work concerning the responsiveness of staff and clients regarding their nonverbal behavior. Nineteen staff members video-recorded a social interaction with one of their clients in which the client had a need for support. The recordings were analyzed using cross recurrence quantification analysis. In addition, fifteen staff members as well as clients with an intellectual disability completed a questionnaire on the quality of the nineteen video-recorded interactions. Analysis of the nonverbal patterns of interaction showed that the staff–client dyads achieved interactional synchrony, but that this synchrony is not pervasive to all nonverbal behaviors. The client observers appeared to be more sensitive to this synchrony or to value it more highly than the staff raters. Staff observers were sensitive to quantitative measures of talking. The more staff in the interactions talked, the lower the quality rating of the interaction. The more the clients talked, the more positively the staff observers rated the interactions. These findings have implications for how collaborative relationships between clients and support workers should be understood.Keywords: Staff–client interactions, Collaborative relationship, Intellectual disabilities, Interactional patterns, Social interactions, Nonverbal communication

The propose of this study aims to use eyeball model approach and algebra-geometric to analyze 3-D gaze estimation. Which stereo gaze directions calculate from 3-D coordinates of the value of Cornea Center and Pupil Center of left and right eyes. Then stereo gaze directions are used to get point of gaze (POG) of 3-D coordination. The experimental is designed in three conditions, (i) no head movement (ii) yaw head movement and (iii) roll head movement. The results from simulation of 3-D gaze estimation show POG accuracy.

An attachment bond between a mother and her child is one of the most intimate human relationships. It is important for a mother to be sensitive to her child's gaze direction because exchanging gaze information plays a vital role in their relationship. Furthermore, recent studies have revealed differential neural activation patterns in mothers when presented the faces of their own children or the unfamiliar child of other people. Based on these findings, in the present study, we investigated whether mothers show differential neural responses to gaze information of their own child compared to that of an unfamiliar child. To this end, event-related-potentials elicited by the faces of one's own or an unfamiliar child with straight or averted gaze directions were measured using an oddball-paradigm. The results showed that peak amplitudes of the N170 component were enlarged by viewing the straight gazes compared to the averted gazes of one's own child, but not of an unfamiliar child. When the gaze was directed straight, the P3 amplitude elicited by one's own child's face is smaller than that elicited by an unfamiliar child's face. P3s elicited in viewing one's own child's face with averted gaze and in viewing an unfamiliar child's face with straight gaze were positively correlated with state-anxiety. These results bolster the hypothesis that processing the gaze information of one's own child elicits differential neural activation compared to the gaze information of an other person's unfamiliar child at both perceptual and evaluative stages of face processing.

Make-up has a beautifying effect on facial attractiveness. However, little is known about the role of make-up in other than social perception. Does eye make-up applied to a gazing face influence the perception of this gaze by others? Eye make-up might make an individual's gaze more recognizable by emphasizing the contrast of the eyes. Or make-up might make gaze less recognizable by transforming eyes to unnatural shapes. There were two stimulus conditions: eye make-up (no-eyeliner, thin-eyeliner and thick-eyeliner) and gaze direction (same gaze direction and different gaze directions). Participants had to make a recognition response indicating whether the gaze directions were the same or different. Results indicated that in the same gaze-direction condition, thin and thick-eyeliner made recognition of a persisting gaze direction easier, whereas in the different gaze-direction condition thick-eyeliner made it more difficult to recognize the changes in gaze direction. These findings suggested a significant role of make-up in facial processing.

We study videoconferencing for meetings with some co-located participants and one remote participant. A standard Skype-like interface for the remote participant is compared to a more immersive 3D interface that conveys gaze directions in a natural way. Experimental results show the 3D interface is promising: all significant differences are in favor of 3D and according to the participants the 3D interface clearly supports selective gaze and selective listening. We found some significant differences in perceived quality of cooperation and organization, and on the opinions about other group members. No significant differences were found for perceived social presence of the remote participants, but we did measure differences in social presence for co-located participants. Measured gaze frequency and duration nor perceived turn-taking behavior did differ significantly.

Detection of others' gaze direction is an essential tool in everyday communication. As the gaze direction is analyzed rapidly and automatically, we hardly notice how we are performing this task. Wollaston's illusion [Wollaston, W. H. (1824). On the apparent direction of eye in a portrait. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, 114, 247-256] provides us the chance to understand an aspect of this problem, in which the change in orientation of the face results in the shift of the perceived gaze direction. This illusion suggests that we analyze others' gaze directions by integrating information from eyes and that from face. By using Wollaston's illusion, we examined how 6- to 8-month-old infants process gaze direction in upright and inverted faces. Our results suggest that 8-month-olds process gaze direction in terms of the orientation of the face, and perceive an illusory shift of the gaze direction in Wollaston's illusion when the face was shown in an upright orientation.

In this chapter we focus on the eye landmarking and eye components identification in the framework of emerging psychology-related eye tracking applications. Traditional eye landmarking separates the identification of eye centers and of eye corners and margins, while here we discuss their joint use for face expression analysis in unconstrained environments and precise estimation of non-visual gaze directions, as suggested by the Eye Accessing Cues (EAC) of the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Such a system involves a combination of low-level feature extraction, heuristic pre-processing and trained classifiers. The approach is extensively tested across several classical image databases and compared with state of the art traditional methods.

This paper presents a method to predict social saliency, the likelihood of joint attention, given an input image or video by leveraging the social interaction data captured by first person cameras. Inspired by electric dipole moments, we introduce a social formation feature that encodes the geometric relationship between joint attention and its social formation. We learn this feature from the first person social interaction data where we can precisely measure the locations of joint attention and its associated members in 3D. An ensemble classifier is trained to learn the geometric relationship. Using the trained classifier, we predict social saliency in real-world scenes with multiple social groups including scenes from team sports captured in a third person view. Our representation does not require directional measurements such as gaze directions. A geometric analysis of social interactions in terms of the F-formation theory is also presented.

Contains fulltext : 64351.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Responses to threat-related stimuli are influenced by conscious and unconscious processes, but the neural systems underlying these processes and their relationship to anxiety have not been clearly delineated. Using fMRI, we investigated the neural responses associated with the conscious and unconscious (backwardly masked) perception of fearful faces in healthy volunteers who varied in threat sensitivity (Spielberger trait anxiety scale). Unconscious processing modulated activity only in the basolateral subregion of the amygdala, while conscious processing modulated activity only in the dorsal amygdala (containing the central nucleus). Whereas activation of the dorsal amygdala by conscious stimuli was consistent across subjects and independent of trait anxiety, activity in the basolateral amygdala to unconscious stimuli, and subjects' reaction times, were predicted by individual differences in trait anxiety. These findings provide a biological basis for the unconscious emotional vigilance characteristic of anxiety and a means for investigating the mechanisms and efficacy of treatments for anxiety.

We examined the judgment, interpretation and impression of gaze directions of figures5 in an Ukiyo-e picture and its compositional variations. In those pictures, figures’ gaze directions were ambiguous because of their eyes drawn by thin lines (Hiki-me). Observers had to judge gaze directions of the figures by cues other than the positions of pupils. The results showed that gaze directions of the figures were judged as a result of information integration of the natural cues of gaze directions and contextual cues in the scene. The object that was paid attention to by the figures as well as the head directions and compositional arrangements of the figures affected the judgment of gaze directions. We especially noted the composition of the figures viewing the object together side-by-side. In this composition, the judgment of gaze direction and the impression of a figure dramatically changed depending on the presence or absence of the commonly viewed object by the figures. We will discuss the results from the point of view of attention allocation and information integration as well as sociocultural background.

We examined whether eye gaze triggers reflexive attentional shift in autism. First, autistic individuals who were lacking both joint attention behaviors and theory-ofmind abilities were examined. Targets were randomly presented to either the left or right side of a gazing face. Autistic subjects localized the targets faster when targets were congruent with than against gaze directions. The occurrence of this gazetriggered attentional shift was further examined using different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) in autistic individuals and non-autistic controls. Autistic subjects similar to non-autistic controls responded faster when the targets were congruent with than against gaze directions for short SOA conditions. These results suggest that autistic individuals, even those lacking joint attention behaviors, respond reflexively to another person’s gaze directions.

Data is in a very important position for pattern recognition tasks including eye gaze estimation. In the literature, most researchers used normal face datasets, which are not specifically designed for eye gaze estimation. As a result, it is difficult to obtain fine labeled eye gaze direction. Therefore large datasets with well-defined gaze directions are desired.

Joint gaze behavior plays a crucial role in nonverbal communication and enhances group interactions. We recently reported that under conditions of uncertainty, observers assume that another person's (left/right averted) gaze is directed towards them, a prior for direct gaze. Given that people's gaze can deviate in many directions during social interactions, we developed a versatile method to examine how the influence of the prior for direct gaze varies across a range of gaze directions in both forward facing and rotated heads. We find that observers tend to report another's gaze along all axes as being more direct when uncertainty is introduced by adding noise to the stimulus. We also find that the influence of the prior is stronger in rotated heads than direct (forward) heads. This is consistent with the idea that, when uncertain, humans tend to judge gaze deviations as being directed at them, regardless of head rotation or axis of deviation.

In this paper, we further the characterization of a fundamental limit of human perception: the accuracy of human estimation of others’ eye gaze directions. In particular, we introduce a non-linear model that describes how both the head direction and the gaze direction of a looker relative to an observer jointly affect the observer’s perception of the looker’s gaze direction. Ours is the first to explain in a single model the biases introduced by the looker’s head direction, the relative accuracy of eye contact detection, and the relative accuracy of estimating gaze direction when the looker’s head and gaze directions are aligned. We put our results into context with other perception studies.

Human gait (way of walking) can be changed to correspond to human gaze direction. We aim to realize a gait-based gaze estimation scheme by modeling the relations between gait and gaze. In this paper, as a first step to our goal, we show the preliminary analysis results of the relations between gait and gaze. From the results, we confirmed that arm swing is affected by the gaze direction. We confirmed a tendency for the opposite arm's amplitude in the gazing direction to decrease. For these analysis, we constructed an immersive walking environment in which we measured subject gaits in various gazing situations by a motion capturing system and an eye tracker. The environment consisted of a treadmill and 180 multi-screens for presenting the gazing target. Our analysis results suggest the possibility of gaze estimation based on gait.

Using various compositions with alterations in figures' gaze directions and additions of an object, the interpretation of gaze directions and the impression of a figure were examined. The results obtained by factor analysis, cluster analysis, multi-dimensional scaling and questionnaires showed that 1) observers' impression of a figure was affected not only by figures' gaze directions but also by the presence or absence of an object viewed by figures, 2) compositions of joint attention gave a positive impression even if in an averted composition (parallel joint attention), 3) the pictures used here were viewed from the point of view of the attachment of mothers and the independence of children, and 4) a woman in this picture was evaluated from the aspect of a motherhood or pre-motherhood impression. These results are discussed in terms of the cognitive process of gaze directions as well as the developmental process of the mother-child relationship.

This study examined adaptive changes of eye-hand coordination during a visuomotor rotation task under the use of terminal visual feedback. Young adults made reaching movements to targets on a digitizer while looking at targets on a monitor where the rotated feedback (a cursor) of hand movements appeared after each movement. Three rotation angles (30°, 75° and 150°) were examined in three groups in order to vary the task difficulty. The results showed that the 30° group gradually reduced direction errors of reaching with practice and adapted well to the visuomotor rotation. The 75° group made large direction errors of reaching, and the 150° group applied a 180° reversal shift from early practice. The 75°and 150° groups, however, overcompensated the respective rotations at the end of practice. Despite these group differences in adaptive changes of reaching, all groups gradually adapted gaze directions prior to reaching from the target area to the areas related to the final positions of reaching during the course of practice. The adaptive changes of both hand and eye movements in all groups mainly reflected adjustments of movement directions based on explicit knowledge of the applied rotation acquired through practice. Only the 30° group showed small implicit adaptation in both effectors. The results suggest that by adapting gaze directions from the target to the final position of reaching based on explicit knowledge of the visuomotor rotation, the oculomotor system supports the limb-motor system to make precise preplanned adjustments of reaching directions during learning of visuomotor rotation under terminal visual feedback.

We investigated a method to estimate the degree of driver awareness of surrounding vehicles based on the correlation between driver gaze direction and the risks caused by surrounding vehicles. The risks posed by surrounding vehicles were represented by their time to collision (TTC) from the driver's vehicle. We recorded driving data from five expert and five non-expert drivers while passing other vehicles on expressways, using an instrumented vehicle. We manually labeled the drivers' gaze directions using video of the drivers' faces, and detected the positions of surrounding vehicles and calculated TTC using laser scanners mounted on the front and back of the vehicle. We focused on driver's gaze behavior for five seconds before the driver began moving into the right hand lane at the beginning of the passing maneuver and calculated the correlation index between vectors representing the distribution of gaze resources and risk levels of surrounding vehicles for eight zones around the vehicle. We found that there were individual differences in gaze behaviors, and that expert drivers showed a higher degree of awareness than non-expert drivers.

The human face is the most important stimulus for human social interactions. Recent research showed that other’s eye gaze could orient an observer’s social attention. There was a significant attention shift effect triggered by the face cue with averted gaze, and this effect was also robust when face cues were displayed subliminally. However, it is controversial whether averted gaze with congruent head orientation could trigger attention shift. We investigated this issue by using face cues consisting of different head orientations and gaze directions (straight or averted). The result showed that the attention shift effect was only found when averted gaze with a front view of a cue face was presented supraliminally. This finding indicated that attention shift triggered by eye gaze was under control of awareness, and only averted gaze with incongruent head orientation was a powerful attention orienting cue for an observer.

Refering to systems theory, we identify a supraindividual property in interactions between therapist and couple. We use gaze directions to describe the partners' behaviors and label this property the “mutual attending frame.” We propose a procedure to observe triadic interactions in a consultation setting and a method to measure mutual attending. The method is illustrated by the data analysis of two triads contrasted on measures of therapeutic alliance. We discuss the potential of this method for the description of the interactive aspects of the therapeutic alliance.

In mobile daily life settings, video-based gaze tracking faces challenges associated with changes in lighting conditions and artefacts in the video images caused by head and body movements. These challenges call for the development of new methods that are robust to such influences. In this paper we investigate the problem of gaze estimation, more specifically how to discriminate different gaze directions from eye images. In a 17 participant user study we record eye images for 13 different gaze directions from a standard webcam. We extract a total of 50 features from these images that encode information on color, intensity and orientations. Using mRMR feature selection and a k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classifier we show that we can estimate these gaze directions with a mean recognition performance of 86%.

As an observer views a picture from different viewing angles, objects in the picture appear to maintain their orientation relative to the observer. For instance, the eyes of a portrait appear to follow the observer as he or she views the image from different angles. We have explored this rotation effect, often called the Mona Lisa effect. We report three experiments that used portrait photographs to test variations of the Mona Lisa effect. The first experiment introduced picture displacements relative to the observer in directions beyond the horizontal plane. The Mona Lisa effect remained robust for vertical and/or diagonal observer displacements. The experiment also included conditions in which the portrait had averted gaze directions. An interaction between picture position relative to the observer and gaze direction was found. The second experiment followed up on very pronounced individual differences, suggesting that the Mona Lisa effect is even stronger than it should be for half of all observers (over-rotators). These individual differences do not correlate with any of the standard personality dimensions (Big Five) or with spatial intelligence. In the third experiment, we extended the experiment to virtual 3D heads using the same gaze directions and picture displacements as for the 2D portrait faces. Besides the picture displacements relative to the observer, we also added observer displacements relative to the picture. 3D pictures showed the Mona Lisa effect, but to a smaller extent than did 2D pictures.

When using eye movements to determine the state of a car driver it is important that the eye tracker is robust, unobtrusive, inexpensive and fully automatic. The objectives of this study are to compare the performance of a one-camera system with a three-camera system and to investigate if the accuracy and availability of the one-camera system is sufficient to monitor driver state. Data from 53 subjects were evaluated and the results indicate that there is not much difference between a single-camera system and a multi-camera system as long as the driver is looking straight ahead. However, with more peripheral gaze directions, the larger coverage that is provided by the additional cameras works in favour of the multi-camera system.

Gaze direction can influence the processing of facial expressions. Angry faces are judged more angry when displaying a direct gaze compared to an averted gaze. We investigated whether facial expressions have a reciprocal influence on the perception of gaze. Participants judged the gaze of angry, fearful and neutral faces across a range of gaze directions. Angry faces were perceived as looking at the observer over a wider range than were fearful or neutral faces, which did not significantly differ. This effect was eliminated when presenting inverted faces, suggesting these results cannot be accounted for by differences in visible eye information. Our findings suggest the existence of a reciprocal influence between gaze direction and angry expressions.

The perception of a looker's gaze direction depends not only on iris eccentricity (the position of the looker's irises within the sclera) but also on the orientation of the lookers' head. One among several potential cues of head orientation is face eccentricity, the position of the inner features of the face (eyes, nose, mouth) within the head contour, as viewed by the observer. For natural faces this cue is confounded with many other head-orientation cues, but in schematic faces it can be studied in isolation. Salient novel illustrations of the effectiveness of face eccentricity are ‘Necker faces’, which involve equal iris eccentricities but multiple perceived gaze directions. In four experiments, iris and face eccentricity in schematic faces were manipulated, revealing strong and consistent effects of face eccentricity on perceived gaze direction, with different types of tasks. An additional experiment confirmed the ‘Mona Lisa’ effect with this type of stimuli. Face eccentricity most likely acted as a simple but robust cue of head turn. A simple computational account of combined effects of cues of eye and head turn on perceived gaze direction is presented, including a formal condition for the perception of direct gaze. An account of the ‘Mona Lisa’ effect is presented.

Inferior oblique recession (IOR), superior oblique tucking or advancement (SOT) and a combination of both (SOT&IOR) are most popular as treatments for acquired trochlear nerve (N.IV) palsy. Recently, it has been reported that results of a modified SOT technique and SOT&IOR were nearly equivalent. We investigated the effects of SOT and SOT&IOR in 37 patients with unilateral acquired isolated N.IV palsy. Retrospective study of patients with unilateral acquired N.IV palsy who were operated at the University Hospitals of Giessen (1996 to 2007) and Essen (2003 to 2007). Examinations with Harms’ tangent scale (2.5 m, dark red glass in front of non-paretic eye) were performed before and 3 months after pure SOT or SOT + IOR. When the palsy was on OS, squint angles were transformed corresponding to palsy on OD. Main outcome measures: horizontal, vertical and cyclotorsional deviations in nine diagnostic gaze directions and the field of binocular fusion. In total, it was possible to examine 37 patients 3 months post surgery: 16 had received pure SOT, and 21 SOT&IOR. Preoperative deviations did not differ significantly between the pure SOT and SOT&IOR groups. Dosage was 6 to 8 mm for pure SOT (median, 8) and 8 to 18 mm (median, 11) for SOT&IOR (with 4 to 8 mm SOT). At 3 months, elevation deficiency in adduction was less severe with pure SOT compared to SOT&IOR, but at the same time the effect on the vertical deviation was less pronounced. Additional IOR augments the effect of SOT, but also its side-effects, i.e. consecutive Brown’s syndrome.

The estimation of the direction of visual attention is critical to a large number of interactive systems. This paper investigates the cross-modal relation of the position of one's feet (or standing stance) to the focus of gaze. The intuition is that while one CAN have a range of attentional foci from a particular stance, one may be MORE LIKELY to look in specific directions given an approach vector and stance. We posit that the cross-modal relationship is constrained by biomechanics and personal style. We define a stance vector that models the approach direction before stopping and the pose of a subject's feet. We present a study where the subjects' feet and approach vector are tracked. The subjects read aloud contents of note cards in 4 locations. The order of `visits' to the cards were randomized. Ten subjects read 40 lines of text each, yielding 400 stance vectors and gaze directions. We divided our data into 4 sets of 300 training and 100 test vectors and trained a neural net to estimate the gaze direction given the stance vector. Our results show that 31% our gaze orientation estimates were within 5°, 51% of our estimates were within 10°, and 60% were within 15°. Given the ability to track foot position, the procedure is minimally invasive.