Paracentral and near-peripheral visualizations: Towards attention-maintaining secondary information presentation on OHMDs during in-person social interactions

Title of the Paper

Paracentral and Near-Peripheral Visualizations: Towards Attention-Maintaining Secondary Information Presentation on OHMDs During In-Person Social Interactions

Paper Information

• Research Area: Human-Computer Interaction, Information Visualization Design for Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays (OHMDs)
• Keywords: Paracentral, Near-peripheral, Social Interaction, Face-to-Face Communication, Circular Progress Bar, Notifications, Interruptions, HMD, Smart Glasses

Research Background and Problem

• Issues and Challenges:

  • Optical see-through head-mounted displays (OHMDs) provide real-time information support but may distract users from primary tasks such as face-to-face interactions.
  • Current notification systems can reduce the quality of social interactions, such as diminishing eye contact.
  • How to display secondary information in social contexts without interfering with primary tasks (e.g., facial visual attention) remains an unresolved issue.

• Significance:

  • In an increasing number of social and work scenarios, users need to handle multiple sources of information simultaneously without disrupting primary tasks.
  • Leveraging the characteristics of the human "paracentral" and "near-peripheral" visual regions may offer an innovative solution to minimize interference with core attention areas.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Previous studies have proposed using peripheral vision to allocate secondary information and reduce the load on central visual areas.
  • However, while mid-to-far peripheral vision excels at motion detection, its ability to discern details is limited. This necessitates exploring the potential of "paracentral" and "near-peripheral" regions.
  • This paper designs a "circular progress bar" interface for OHMDs to display information in these underexplored visual regions.

Solution

• Proposed Method:

  • Designed and compared three progress notification display methods: "circular progress bar," "linear progress bar," and "text label," to study their effects on user attention and secondary information reception.
  • Envisioned the use of these three information representations in paracentral and near-peripheral visual regions.

• Innovations:

  • Proposed utilizing the human paracentral and near-peripheral visual regions to display secondary information, enabling users to maintain eye contact while receiving notifications.
  • Introduced the "circular progress bar," which aligns with natural visual characteristics.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  • The experiment consisted of two parts:
    1. Simulated Experiment: Tested the impact of the three display methods on progress information recognition and eye contact quality in a hypothetical digital character dialogue scenario.
    2. Realistic Experiment: Further validated the design results in real-life dialogue contexts involving a wearer and a conversation partner.
  • Used Microsoft HoloLens2 as the OHMD device and developed the progress bar display using Unity.
  • Tested two progress bar presentation modes (continuous and intermittent), ultimately selecting intermittent display to reduce conversation interruptions.

Research Findings

• Specific Results:

  • Experiment 1 (Simulated Scenario):

    • The circular progress bar showed higher information recognition accuracy (96.32%) compared to the linear progress bar and text label, with minimal gaze shifts.
    • Text labels were difficult to recognize in peripheral visual regions, especially for curved digits (e.g., 3, 8).
    • Most participants (83%) preferred the circular progress bar, considering it the least disruptive to conversations.

  • Experiment 2 (Realistic Scenario):

    • Participants found the circular progress bar most effective, providing higher notification salience and comfort, with most users reporting a more relaxed experience.
    • Although text labels offered quick viewing advantages for some users, the precision required for reading numbers caused higher mental stress.
    • Observers did not perceive unnatural eye behavior from OHMD wearers, indicating minimal impact of the notification design on social interactions.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • The circular progress bar, by aligning with paracentral and near-peripheral visual regions, significantly reduced notification interference with primary tasks such as conversations.
  • Provided an innovative human-computer interaction design that preserves user attention while effectively conveying secondary information.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Both subjective and objective data showed that the circular progress bar outperformed the other two modes in terms of information delivery efficiency and user satisfaction.
  • Data indicated that while the linear progress bar was less intuitive than the circular one, it still had certain applications in pre-positioned information scenarios.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:

    • The experiment lacked precise tracking of the specific usage of visual regions (paracentral/near-peripheral).
    • Testing was limited to younger users with high technological acceptance, without covering a diverse age range or varied usage scenarios.
    • The device used (HoloLens2) is relatively bulky, which might affect the naturalness of social interactions in real-world settings.

  • Future Directions:

    • Conduct tests with a broader demographic (e.g., elderly users) to validate the design's applicability.
    • Explore applications and adaptability in other multitasking scenarios, such as public speaking or group meetings.
    • Optimize the circular progress bar's display, such as visual adjustments for time-critical notifications.