05 5 / 2008
Test This! Eye Tracking the World of Warcraft [QA/tech/innovative]
My girlfriend (who is so much the better half of me) literally hates my love of video games and how my casual addiction to World of Warcraft (and now GTA4), has derailed some of my household chores. Don’t worry. I still bathe. I can honestly say that I have this under control, but then I stumbled on this article that talks of how someone has “jerry-rigged” an eye tracking apparatus to their PC and without using a keyboard, they can navigate their character through the vast landscape of Azeroth (my nerd/geek cred has reached a new level).
In my QA mind – I immediately think – SWEET! Now how can I test this? I love the game, and I love everything technologically creative - so this is the best of both worlds.
Functionality testing can be extended way beyond the clicks, the scrolls, the windows, and the toggles of a typical UI. By stretching the scope of how we interact with interfaces, especially gaming interfaces, we increase the “cool” factor by leaps and even financial bounds. Just look at the success of the Wii.
So I want to sign up for this one. If I could test this eye tracking with Warcraft, it would be the best of both worlds for me.
Eye tracking could be easily tested for functionality, but lets kick it up a notch and start look at boundary testing this eye tracker. Now that raises some interest. What are the types of boundary test cases that can be built for validating an eye tracker? I pose this as just another item to add to the list of inventive QA questions that are given to interviewees out there in the ether.
