Chapter 6. Quantifying the interplay of gaze and gesture in deixis using an experimental-simulative approach

Gaze and gestures have been studied qualitatively, e.g., by Kendon and others (Kendon, 1990; McNeill, 1992; Kendon, 2004; McNeill, 2006). A quantitative assessment of gaze and gestures in dialogue, in particular regarding precise orientations, positions and timings, however, has only been possible with the advent of advanced measuring technologies, such as motion capturing or eye tracking. Especially in dynamic natural environments, when interlocutors are concerned with their surrounding three-dimensional environment, a precise three-dimensional reconstruction of the set-up is required to analyze the produced multimodal utterances. In this article we review several of our past projects with a focus on our experimental-simulative approach in which we combine state-of-the-art tracking technologies with 3D representations and computer simulations to test different hypotheses in the context of deixis in human-human interaction