Peripheral Notification by PCT (peripheral cognision technologies)

Seiji Yamada (NII/Sokendai)
Naoki Mori (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Kazuki Kobayashi(Shinshu University)

In this work, we describe a novel information notification method, Peripheral Cognition Technology (PCT) that utilizes human cognitive properties including visual field narrowing and change blindness (or
inattentional blindness). Information notification on a display for e-mail, micro blog, and application update, is becoming increasingly important in various environments such as offices, and the home. To develop a smart information notification, a user model-based approach and a peripheral display have been studied. However, building a user model is difficult and a peripheral display catches user attention. We propose a novel PCT for information notification.

The PCT utilizes the human cognitive properties that a visual field narrows when he/she concentrates on a task, and that a human tends to be unable to recognize subtle and slow changes. The core idea of PCT is that a human does not recognize subtle changes in a peripheral area of cognition when he/she concentrates on a task, and he/she automatically recognizes the changes when not concentrated. By setting a software agent or a device of information notification with subtle changes in such a peripheral area, a user automatically and easily accepts the notification only when his/her concentration breaks. Also PCT provides a way to determine various properties of HAI such as agents appearances and positions. Two concrete implementations, “Peripheral Agent” and “Shape Shifting Notification”, of PCT are introduced.

Icon of Peripheral Notification.

Icon of Peripheral Notification.

VFN (visual field narrowing) Model

VFN (visual field narrowing) Model

Snapshot of Experimental Task.

Snapshot of Experimental Task.

Publications

  • Seiji Yamada, Naoki Mori and Kasuki Kobayashi: Peripheral Agent: Implementation of Peripheral Cognition Technology, In Proceedings of the 31th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2013), Work-in-Progress (poster), pp.1701-1705, Paris, France (May 2013)