User notifications based on eye tracking in multiple monitor environments (16-Dec-2008)

User notifications based on eye tracking in multiple monitor environments

Disclosed is a method by which notifications and pop up windows can be better placed on a computer screen based on where the user is currently looking and what the user's previous reaction was to notifications and pop up windows. The benefit for this method is particularly useful in a multi-monitor environment and all the screens are not in the user's peripheral vision.

    The problem this article will address is the drawbacks that multi-monitor setups have, it is also applicable for singular monitor environments with larger monitors. Increasingly people use more than one monitor. This usually increases productivity as more can be displayed at once and less time is spent maximising, minimising and moving windows. However it is inevitable that important windows such as mail and chat programs, e.g. IBM* Lotus** Notes** and Sametime* get forgotten about.

    This can be addressed by using eye tracking techniques (as per US patent 6078310) to better position alerts depending on where the user is looking. Additionally, the software responsible should learn based on the user's actions. For instance, if the user repeatedly ignores a certain type of notification, e.g. an e-mail from someone in particular, this notification will then move further away from the user's field of vision until eventually it won't be displayed.

    There exists technology and algorithms for working out where a user is looking. This method requires this existing software and hardware is used to monitor where the user is looking then place notifications a relative distance, depending on importance, from the centre of where the user is looking.

    C...