Matching digital information flow to a human perception system

• US 7,548,239 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Issued: 06/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Larson, Kevin, Hitchcock, Gregory C., Hill, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung; Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chu; David H
• Application Number:
  US11/469,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20060290714A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/428
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

A method and system for matching digital information flow to the human perception system. In various embodiments, multi-monitor (multimon) support is leveraged to take advantage of multiple windowing and window positioning to separate elements of different tasks into information planes (which are based on a concept of “triage and focus”). Triage watches the flow of incoming information and determines the nature of the information. Based on the nature of the information and principles of human perception, Focus (or defocus) displays the information where the information is best viewed.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates matching of digital information to a human perception system, comprising:

a triage component that determines characteristics of digital documents and processes the characteristics in accordance with human perception data;

a viewing component that presents the digital documents according to the characteristic thereof in a focused mode on a first viewing plane and a peripheral mode on a second viewing plane in accordance with human perception data;

a classifier that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed, the classifier determines what documents to display in the focused mode versus the peripheral mode, based at least in part on the document content, document type, number of peripheral displays, historical information of the user, version and timestamp of the document, and audio input signals; and

wherein the focused mode of the first viewing plane corresponds to foveal/parafoveal vision attributes of the human perception system and the peripheral mode of the second viewing plane corresponds to periphery attributes of the human perception system.

2. The system of claim 1, the digital document information is presented in different viewing resolutions.

3. The system of claim 2, the focused mode is displayed in a higher resolution than the peripheral mode.

4. The system of claim 1, the digital document information is presented in different viewing sizes.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first viewing plane is on a first display device and the second viewing plane is on a second display device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein objects within the viewing planes are automatically resized when moved from one plane to another plane.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an audio component that presents audio information according to the characteristic.

8. The system of claim 1, the digital document information is delivered to the viewing component according to just-in-time video data transfer.

9. A method of matching of digital document information to a human perception system, comprising:

a processor that executes the following computer-executable acts;

determining characteristics of digital documents and processing the characteristics in accordance with human perception data;

determining what digital documents to display in the focused mode versus the peripheral mode based on the characteristics of the digital documents in accordance with human perception data;

presenting the digital documents in at least one of a focused mode on a first viewing plane and a peripheral mode on at least one other viewing plane;

a classifier that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed, the classifier determines what documents to display in the focused mode versus the peripheral mode, based at least in part on the document content, document type, number of peripheral displays, historical information of the user, version and timestamp of the document, and audio input signals; and

wherein the focused mode of the first viewing plane corresponds to foveal/parafoveal vision attributes of the human perception system and the peripheral mode of the second viewing plane corresponds to periphery attributes of the human perception system.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising presenting the digital document information in a single plane that facilitates both the focal mode and the peripheral mode.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising presenting the peripheral information at one or more resolutions different from the resolution of the focused mode in multiple peripheral viewing planes positioned about a computing device that drives the peripheral viewing planes.

12. The method of claim 9, the focused mode is presented in at least one of a laptop computer and a table computer.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing a virtual bookshelf that facilitates reading a virtual book.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing just-in-time pixels according to multiple peripheral planes positioned around a room.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing an audio signal in response to moving a document or object between the focal plane and the peripheral plane.

16. A system that facilitates matching of digital document information to human perception system, comprising:

means for determining characteristics of digital documents and processing the characteristics in accordance with human perception data;

means for determining what digital documents to display in the focused mode versus the defocused mode based on the characteristics of the digital documents in accordance with human perception data;

means for presenting the digital documents in a focused mode on a focused viewing plane and a defocused mode in peripheral viewing planes in accordance with human perception data;

means for auto-resizing the digital documents when moved between the focused mode and the peripheral mode;

means for outputting audio information according to the characteristics;

a classifier that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed, the classifier determines what documents to display in the focused mode versus the peripheral mode, based at least in part on the document content, document type, number of peripheral displays, historical information of the user, version and timestamp of the document, and audio input signals; and

wherein the focused mode of the focused viewing plane corresponds to foveal/parafoveal vision attributes of the human perception system and the defocused mode of the peripheral viewing planes corresponds to periphery attributes of the human perception system.

17. The system of claim 16, the digital document information is presented in different viewing planes at different viewing resolutions.

18. The system of claim 16, the digital document information is delivered to the viewing component according to just-in-time video data transfer.