  Video conferences play a vital role in our daily lives. However, many
nonverbal cues are missing, including gaze and spatial information. We
introduce LookAtChat, a web-based video conferencing system, which empowers
remote users to identify gaze awareness and spatial relationships in
small-group conversations. Leveraging real-time eye-tracking technology
available with ordinary webcams, LookAtChat tracks each user's gaze direction,
identifies who is looking at whom, and provides corresponding spatial cues.
Informed by formative interviews with 5 participants who regularly use
videoconferencing software, we explored the design space of gaze visualization
in both 2D and 3D layouts. We further conducted an exploratory user study
(N=20) to evaluate LookAtChat in three conditions: baseline layout, 2D
directional layout, and 3D perspective layout. Our findings demonstrate how
LookAtChat engages participants in small-group conversations, how gaze and
spatial information improve conversation quality, and the potential benefits
and challenges to incorporating gaze awareness visualization into existing
videoconferencing systems.
