DYNAMIC FEATURE PRESENTATION BASED ON VISION DETECTION

• US 20100191727A1
• Filed: 01/26/2009
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Malik, Manish
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/734
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence

Abstract

Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and graphical user interfaces (GUI'"'"'s) for interactively presenting features within the panes of a display area rendered in a GUI workspace are provided. Initially, a computing device memory is inspected to discover a profile that accommodates a user-visual pattern. When the profile is not discovered, a default page layout is retrieved and communicated to the display device for presentation within the display area. If the profile is discovered, commonly viewed screen locations, based upon a frequency of eye fixation upon each of the screen locations, are ordered. Contextually relevant features are selected for presentation within the display area. The selected features are ranked based on predetermined criteria and each associated with the commonly viewed screen locations by comparing the ranking with the ordering. A page layout is constructed by spatially placing the features in proximity to the screen locations associated therewith, and is rendered within the display area.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for arranging one or more features within a page layout presented at a graphical user interface (GUI) workspace, the method comprising:

accessing a user-visual pattern stored in a profile;

extracting from the user-visual pattern screen locations commonly viewed by the user during at least one computing session;

constructing a page layout within a display area by implementing an allocation process comprising;

(a) selecting features to present to a user; and

(b) populating one or more panes within the page layout with the selected features, respectively, based on the commonly viewed screen locations;

presenting the constructed page layout in the display area rendered on a GUI workspace of a display device.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

associating the commonly viewed screen locations with predefined content regions of an application window; and

identifying the one or more panes within the page layout that substantially align with the predefined content regions.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 2, wherein selecting the features to present to a user comprises:

enumerating the features that are contextually relevant to a state of an application rendering the display area on the GUI workspace; and

ranking the enumerated features based on predetermined criteria.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein the predetermined criteria comprise at least one of calculated advertisement revenue, click-through rate, or bid value.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the application is configured as a web browser, the display area is configured as a browser window, and the features populated on the one or more panes of the browser window comprise at least one of an advertisement, search results, or featured web addresses.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein the application is configured as a computer program, the display area is configured as an application window, and the features populated on the one or more panes of the application window comprise at least one of a toolbar, a scrollbar, or a document-editing panel.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein populating one or more panes within the page layout with the selected features comprises:

ordering the commonly viewed screen locations leading with a most-frequently-targeted screen location; and

mapping the commonly viewed screen locations with the ranked features such that a highest-ranked feature is matched with the most-frequently-targeted screen location.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 7, the method further comprising:

deriving dimensional parameters from the display area;

enumerating a number of the one or more panes in which to divide the display area based on the dimensional parameters;

selecting a number of the features to publish that coincides with the number of the one or more panes;

selecting a number of the commonly viewed screen locations that coincides with the number of the one or more panes;

arranging the one or more panes within the display area such that each of the one or more panes substantially overlays each of the selected screen locations, respectively; and

placing each of the selected features within each of the one or more arranged panes.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

failing to discover the profile;

retrieving a default page layout; and

communicating the default page layout to the display device for presentation within the display area.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

employing an eye-tracking device to generate the user-visual pattern by implementing a vision-detection process, the vision detection process comprising;

(a) monitoring movement of the user'"'"'s eyes over a time; and

(b) utilizing a correlation technique to map the user'"'"'s eye movement to the screen locations; and

storing the screen locations as the user-visual pattern.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

utilizing the eye-tracking device to track subsequent eye movements of the user;

updating the user-visual pattern by incorporating the subsequent eye movements therein; and

dynamically modifying the page layout in accordance with the updated user-visual pattern.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising locally accessing the profile within the computing device to read the user-visual pattern upon launching an application, wherein the page layout that is developed based on the user-visual pattern is utilized to configure an application window.

9. A computerized method for interactively presenting features within one or more panes of a display area rendered in a GUI workspace, the method comprising:

inspecting portions of a memory of a computing device to discover a profile that accommodates a user-visual pattern;

incident to discovering the profile, ordering commonly viewed screen locations based upon a frequency of eye fixation upon each of the screen locations;

selecting features to surface within the display area that are contextually relevant to a state of an application rendering the display area on the GUI workspace;

ranking the selected features based on predetermined criteria;

associating each of the features with the commonly viewed screen locations by comparing the ranking with the ordering such that highly-ranked features are paired with the screen locations that are most frequently targeted by a user'"'"'s eye movements;

assembling a page layout by placing the features in proximity with the screen locations associated therewith; and

communicating the page layout to a display device for presentation within the display area.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a query submitted by a user at a browser window; and

remotely accessing the profile at the computing device to read the user-visual pattern upon retrieving search results that satisfy the query, wherein the page layout that is developed based on the user-visual pattern dictates a pane within the browser window to receive the search results.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

ranking the search results leading with a most relevant result based, in part, on the query;

employing the user-visual pattern to rerank the search results such that the most relevant result is paired with a most frequently targeted screen location; and

rendering the search results in an order consistent with the reranking.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

reconfiguring a position and dimensions of the one or more panes of the display area to substantially overlay the commonly viewed screen locations; and

writing the one or more reconfigured panes to the page layout.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising applying a statistical analysis model to the user-visual pattern to derive the commonly viewed screen locations and to distil the most-frequently-targeted screen locations therefrom.

18. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for presenting on one or more display devices a graphical user interface (GUI) workspace configured to dynamically arrange features within a display area by inspecting a user-visual pattern, the GUI workspace comprising:

the display area presented within confines of the GUI workspace, wherein the display area is divided into individual content regions, wherein the content regions comprise a first pane and a second pane;

the first pane publishing a first feature, wherein the first pane overlays a screen location most frequently targeted by a user'"'"'s eye movements as derived from the user-visual pattern, wherein the first feature is a primary-listed feature in a ranking based on predetermined criteria; and

the second pane publishing a second feature, wherein the second pane overlays a screen location second-most frequently targeted by a user'"'"'s eye movements as derived from the user-visual pattern, wherein the second feature is a secondary-listed feature in a ranking based on predetermined criteria.

19. The graphical user interface of claim 18, wherein the content regions comprise a third pane, the third pane publishing a third feature, wherein the third pane overlays a screen location third-most frequently targeted by a user'"'"'s eye movements as derived from the user-visual pattern, wherein the third feature is a tertiary-listed feature in a ranking based on predetermined criteria.

20. The graphical user interface of claim 19, wherein the first, second, and third panes are configured as rectangular-shaped objects, and wherein the primary-listed feature includes an advertisement, the secondary-listed feature includes featured web addresses, and the tertiary-listed feature comprises search results.