Towards stereoscopic vision: Attention-guided gaze estimation with EEG in 3D space

Since traditional gaze-tracking methods rely on line-of-sight estimation, spatial attention modeling from neural activity offers an alternative perspective to gaze estimation. This paper presents a proof-of-concept study on attention-guided gaze estimation with Electroencephalography (EEG), investigating whether brain signals can be leveraged to estimate attentional focus within a controlled 3D environment. We first conducted a preliminary survey to gather public opinions, revealing a generally positive attitude towards EEG-driven gaze tracking. Building on this insight, we collected an EEG dataset in VR, where participants engaged with stimuli presented at predefined spatial locations. We introduce a deep learning model that estimates the relative saliency of candidate positions, enabling gaze estimation through optimization within the learned representation. Our results demonstrate that attentional focus was successfully mapped in a 3D coordinate space from 5 participants, and low-frequency oscillations contributed more significantly to predictive performance. The model achieved robust accuracy in distinguishing gaze locations, highlighting the potential of EEG-based gaze estimation for attention tracking in 3D environments.