REDUCING VISUAL CROWDING, INCREASING ATTENTION AND IMPROVING VISUAL SPAN

摘要

Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on computer readable media, for modifying displayed text in a gaze-contingent way to reduce crowding, thus increasing the observer's visual span, and thus increasing the observer's reading rate. The trick is to introduce only a few differences between characters (not enough to produce a pattern) of text so as to reduce crowding. For example, differences between characters near the left and right extremes of the observer's estimated visual span can be altered to reduce crowding.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a gaze capture component configured to:
capture an image that comprises a representation of at least one eye of an observer; a processor configured to:
determine location of the eyes of the observer in the image;calculate a gaze location based at least upon the location of the eyes in the image, wherein the gaze location identifies a location within text displayed on a display;estimate a nominal span, wherein a location of the nominal span is based upon the gaze location, and wherein the nominal span comprises a plurality of characters; andalter one or more visual characteristics of the displayed text based at least upon the nominal span, wherein the alterations to the one or more visual characteristics of the displayed text reduce crowding so as to increase the visual span of an observer.