Influence of keyboard layout and feedback type in eye-typing tasks: A comparative study

Writing with a keyboard using only one's gaze, i.e., eye-typing has aroused researchers' interest in the last decades. Initial efforts aimed to provide a means of communication for people suffering from severe motor disabilities, while recently, the interest has expanded to target non-disabled people. The present paper examined the impact of the keyboard shape and type of feedback on writing performance and usability. More specifically, three keyboard shapes (i.e., QWERTY, ABCDE, and Circular) and three types of feedback (i.e., visual, audio, none) were investigated. Besides confirming the impact of visual feedback for successful performance in an eye-typing task, our results expand previous findings showing the advantages of deploying a circularly-shaped keyboard.