using eye tracking to investigate important cues for representative creature motion
We present an experiment designed to reveal some of the key features necessary for conveying creature motion. Humans can reliably identify animals shown in minimal form using Point Light Display (PLD) representations, but it is unclear what information they use when doing so. The ultimate goal for this research is to find recognizable traits that may be communicated to the viewer through motion, such as size and attitude and then to use that information to develop a new way of creating and managing animation and animation controls. The aim of this study was to investigate whether viewers use similar visual information when asked to identify or describe animal motion PLDs and full representations. Participants were shown 20 videos of 10 animals, first as PLD and then in full resolution. After each video, participants were asked to select descriptive traits and to identify the animal represented. Species identification results were better than chance for six of the 10 animals when shown PLD. Results from the eye tracking show that participants' gaze was consistently drawn to similar regions when viewing the PLD as the full representation.
animation perception eyetracking point-light display