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(Job reference: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/CG531.html)

A three-year PhD studentship is available in the area of gaze-based
interaction with on-line games and virtual communities. This is funded
by the Institute Of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort
University, and will be conducted in collaboration with the University
of Tampere in Finland. The IOCT is a joint enterprise between the
Faculties of Computing Science and Engineering, Humanities, Art and
Design. Other collaborators in the project are IT University,
Copenhagen, and Special Effects, a charitable organisation based in
Oxford aimed at making games accessible to children with different types
of motor impairment.

Recently there has been a huge increase in the popularity of MMOG, such
as World of Warcraft, and on-line communities, such as Second Life. 
Participation in these can be very rewarding for people with severe
motor disabilities, especially as they can appear within the virtual
world as being able-bodied (if they so wish). Eye gaze can be a very
effective input modality for people with very limited motor control over
their hands and limbs. There has been much successful work in the field
of gaze-based interaction with 2D graphical interfaces, so that
techniques based on gaze can be used with many desktop applications.
Very little work however has been done so far on using gaze-based
interaction with 3D graphical worlds.

The project will examine how best to facilitate fast interaction with
virtual communities through the use of eye gaze, with the purpose of
enabling people with severe levels of motor disability to participate in
these communities on a similar basis to able-bodied people.
The PhD work will focus on the design and evaluation of gaze-based
interaction techniques and soft interaction devices, such as transparent
toolglasses, that sit between the target application or world and the
gaze-driven input device. Some of the evaluation will involve working
with users who have motor disabilities together with specialist user
organisations. It is envisaged that some of the research work will be
carried out in usability laboratories of the Department of Computer
Science at the University of Tampere in Finland. Additional funding to
support travel and subsistence are expected to be available for this.

The post will suit applicants with a good honours or Masters degree in
computing science and an strong interest in Human-Computer Interaction. 
The successful candidate should have, or be prepared to acquire, good
user interface programming skills, and should be willing to work for
short periods in Finland and possibly Denmark. The candidate should also
have, or be prepared to acquire, good academic writing skills.
Candidates with backgrounds in other related disciplines will be
considered. The student will be supervised by Howell Istance and will be
based for most of time in the School of Computing at De Montfort
University in Leicester.


The studentship will fully fund a UK or EU student, paying home fees
plus a living allowance (currently GBP15,000/year). The closing date for
applications is 30 July 2007.

For further information, please contact Howell Istance ([log in to unmask])

Applications should include a CV, two references and a covering letter. 
Application forms and further details are available from Rebekah
Harriman
([log in to unmask])

Applications should be sent to:
Rebekah Harriman ([log in to unmask])

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