Work-in-Progress—A Preliminary Eye Tracking and HMD Orientation Comparison to Determine Focus on a Cardiac Auscultation Training Environment

Abstract

Cardiac auscultation is a routine medical examination whereby using a stethoscope placed over various regions of the patient’s chest, a health care professional listens to the patient’s heart murmurs to diagnose their heart condition. Cardiac auscultation training has evolved from relying on patient and audio recordings to employing simulation manikins, multimedia, mobile applications, and most recently digital simulations, including virtual reality (VR) that allows training without the limitations of physical laboratories. Typically, at a consumer-level VR headset orientation is used to identify areas of attention and trigger interactions, while high-end headsets make use of eye tracking. This paper presents a work in progress comparison between headset orientation and eye tracking employing two different VR controllers to understand focus on items on screen. Preliminary results indicate that participants spent a significant amount of time browsing the scene rather than relevant objects for the examination. With respect to the tracking methods, eye tracking was the most reliable, thus highlighting the need for thoughtful headset tracking. Future work will focus on a larger study to develop a tool to enhance VR headset interactions by understanding how they compare to gaze captured data for more effective interactions and navigation in VR for successful training.