The company E-Konbini develops and markets connected vending machines for prepared meals. Orders can be placed remotely via the Internet or on the spot using a touch terminal.
How to disrupt the kiosk's user experience? By allowing users to control it with their eyes!
Using eye-tracking on a public system poses serious challenges. Eye-tracking is a precision technique that requires the system to be configured and calibrated for a particular user. Immersalis' task was to overcome the technological hurdles inherent in the use of an eye-tracker on a consumer kiosk. Ou main focuses was to develop a fast calibration of the device, so as not to interrupt the ordering experience, and to set up the system's physical configuration to accommodate the wide inter-individual variability in user sizes.
Based on these initial results, we were able to address the development of non-intrusive eye interactions to offer a new and engaging experience to customers.
This project was the subject of two scientific publications at the IHM2018 and IHM2019 conferences: link to the article IHM2018 in open access on HAL ; link to the article IHM2019 in open access on HAL
Our eyes are all different. An eye-tracker must therefore be calibrated for each new user. We have developed a calibration that takes only a few seconds, dividing by 5 the time normally needed. By making the calibration non-intrusive, we allow the user to fully enjoy the new experience and manipulate the system with his eyes.
Designing a public system implies being able to take into account the high variability of size between individuals. So we worked on a solution that would allow us to broaden the audience of our new user experience as much as possible.
In order to offer an experience that is not disorienting, we have developed two simple interactions that complement the touch screen. The "Lean & Zoom" interaction allows you to zoom in and get additional information on a product simply by looking at it while approaching the screen. The "EyeScroll" interaction allows you to scroll through the product selection when you look at the edge of the screen.
