Gaze into Legends

Emotionally-driven Adaptive Storytelling with Gaze-Control in VR Mythological Landscapes The human fascination with the mystical power of vision and sight is a recurring theme in world mythology, resonating in legends like the petrifying gaze of the Gorgons or the ominous "evil eye" across various cultures. Despite the rich landscape of sight-based magic in myths, these concepts often fall into oversimplification, missing the broader narrative context. Our project pioneers an eye-tracking-based virtual reality experience, inviting participants to immerse themselves in global mythology from a first-person perspective. Journeying through tales from Arabian folklores to Asian spectral stories, players engage in a unique blend of storytelling and remembrance. Our design transcends traditional textual storytelling by immersing participants in captivating visuals and interactive narratives, empowering them with supernatural vision power. We move beyond mere replication of narratives, fostering playful and open-ended interactions that ignite the audience's imagination and invite diverse interpretations. Enabled by generative AI, each space presents players with a single-lined poem upon completing a mythic journey, offering fresh perspectives and unraveling open threads of possibilities. Players' personalized journeys contribute to a shared mosaic of poetic expressions, co-created by explorers on unique paths. Through the integration of gaze interactions, immersive storytelling, and generative AI, our work encourages collective reimagination of myths, rekindling our connection with profound visual themes resonating across ages. By Meichun Cai, Xin Feng