Eyetracked alert messages

Abstract: User messages are automatically positioned on a display at a location at which a user's gaze is directed as indicated by an eyetracker. When a user has read the message, as indicated by his eyes having traversed the text, the message is automatically cleared. The message may also be cleared by a user's spoken response.

Description: Invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly, to computer systems which display system messages or error messages to an user. Computer systems are known which open a window to display a system message or an error message to an user. Since these messages are important and since prior art systems have no way of determining when a user has read an error message, the opening of a message window stops the processing of the program underway until such time as the user acknowledges having read the error message by taking some action, such as pressing "Return". It is also known in the art to sound an alarm, such as a beep, to inform the user that an error has occurred. Such systems have the problem that a user may make a number of errors in the process of learning new software or of operating the computer so that, when others are nearby, the presence of a beep is embarrassing. Eyetracking devices are known particularly in conjunction with heads up displays in certain control applications in aircraft. An eyetracker device monitors the eyes of a user and calculates the direction in which the user is looking and, in some applications, the particular point in three dimensional space on which the user's eyes focus. One commercial eyetracker is the Dual-Purkinje-Image (DPI) Eyetracker, manufactured by Forward Optical Technologies, Inc. of El Chaon, California. It determines the direction of gaze over a large two dimensional visual field with great accuracy and without any attachments to the eye. It operates with infra-red light which is invisible to the subject and does not interfere with normal vision. The eyetracker has a pointing accuracy on the order of one minute of arc and response time on the order of one millisecond. One can utilise the DPI Eyetracker with an infra-red optometer to allow a continuous measure of eye focus, producing a three dimensional eyetracker. US-A-5247433 discloses a control system for a plant which uses an eyetracker to determine where a plant operator is looking. This can be used to select one of several displays for displaying information. Object oriented programming is a known form of software development that models the real world representation of objects or modules that contain data as well as instructions that work upon that data. Objects are the basic building blocks of an object oriented program. Objects are software entities. They may model something physical like a person or they may model something virtual like checking account. Normally an object has one or more attributes (fields) that collectively define the state of the object; behaviour defined by a set of methods (procedures) that can modify those attributes; and an identity that distinguishes it from other objects. Encapsulation refers to the hiding of most of the details of the object. This permits the object to be treated as a single entity. However, the set of operations associated with the object are explicit and constitute a well defined interface. One object requests another object to perform one or more operations through messaging. An object is sometimes referred to as an instance of an abstract data type or class. The programmer may define a class of objects by describing the attributes and procedures common to the class. By defining the class only once, a plurality of instances can be created by associating the class attributes and procedures with each instance and allowing the instances to differ only in their identity or in a particular value associated with the range of values permitted for the class. Object oriented programming also permits creation of subclasses in which class attributes and procedures can be inherited from the class by subordinate subclasses and creation of super classes in which only the common attributes and procedures of a group of instances of various classes are retained as the defining characteristics. According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for managing information on a display, comprising an eyetracker for detecting a location at which a user's eyes are looking and a controller for handling display of information on a display wherein the controller is configured to cause, without user request, display of an alert message at said location detected by the eyetracker when said location is on said display. The apparatus may further comprise said display. The apparatus may further comprise a computer and an audio microphone, connected to said computer, for providing representations of speech to said computer and said computer configured to recognise a verbal message to clear an alert message. The controller may be configured to cause the start of text of said alert message to be placed substantially at said location. The controller may be configured to cause an alarm to be sounded to call the user's attention back to the display when said location is not on said display. The controller may be configured to cause said alert message to be cleared when said eyetracker indicates that the user's eyes have scanned said alert message. The apparatus may include a plurality of displays, wherein the controller is configured to cause display of said alert message for the user on a one of said plurality of displays at which the user is looking and at said location on said one of said plurality of displays. According to the present invention there is also provided a computer system comprising a network and a plurality of computers connected to said network, at least one of said computers having the apparatus. According to the present invention there is also provided a method of managing information on a display comprising providing means for detecting a location at which a user's eyes are looking, providing means for handling display of information on a display and configuring said handling means to cause, without user request, display of an alert message at said detected location when said location is on said display. The method may further comprise providing means for sounding an alarm and configuring said handling means to cause said alarm to be sounded if said location is not on a display. The method may comprise configuring said handling means to cause the start of text of said alert message to be displayed at said location. The method may comprise configuring said handling means to cause removal of said message if the eyes of said user have traversed said message. The method may comprise configuring said handling means to cause said alert message to be displayed on a one of a plurality of displays at which the user is looking and at said location on said one of said plurality of displays. According to the present invention there is still further provided a computer program stored on a medium including instructions for detecting a location at which a user's eyes are looking, handling display of information on a display and causing, without user request, display or an alert message at said detected location when said location is on said display. The computer program may further comprise instructions for causing an alarm to sound if said location is not a display. The computer program may further comprise instructions for causing said alert message to be removed if the eyes of said user have traversed said message. The computer program may further comprise instructions for causing said alert message to be displayed on a one of a plurality of displays at which said user is looking and at said location if said location is on said one display. Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1A illustrates a computer, equipped with an eyetracker, of a type suitable for carrying out the invention; Figure 1B illustrates a block diagram of the computer of Figure 1A; Figure 1C illustrates an exemplary memory medium containing a program usable with the computer of Figure 1A; Figure 2 is a front view of a multi-display computer console; Figure 3 illustrates opening of a message object at a user's location of gaze. Figure 4 is a flow chart of a process used for opening and closing message objects. NOTATIONS AND NOMENCLATURE The detailed descriptions which follow may be presented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer or network of computers. These procedural descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. These steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein which form part of the present invention; the operations are machine operations. Useful machines for performing the operation of the present invention include general purpose digital computers or similar devices. The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing these operations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purpose or it may comprise a general purpose computer as selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. The procedures presented herein are not inherently related to a particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose machines may be used with programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove more convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these machines will appear from the description given. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Figure 1A illustrates a computer of a type suitable for carrying out the invention. Viewed externally in Figure 1A, a computer system has a central processing unit 100 having disk drives 110A and 110B. Disk drive indications 110A and 110B are merely symbolic of a number of disk drives which might be accommodated by the computer system. Typically, these would include a floppy disk drive such as 110A , a hard disk drive (not shown externally) and a CD ROM drive indicated by slot 110B. The number and type of drives varies, typically, with different computer configurations. The computer has the display 120 upon which information is displayed. A keyboard 130 and a mouse 140 are typically also available as input devices over interface 145. One or more camera and illumination parts 190, shown mounted on the display casing, are used to observe the user's eyes and determine the position at which a user's eyes are looking. Preferably, the computer illustrated in Figure 1A is a SPARC workstation from Sun Microsystems, Inc. Figure 1B illustrates a block diagram of the internal hardware of the computer of Figure 1A. A bus 150 serves as the main information highway interconnecting the other components of the computer. CPU 155 is the central processing unit of the system, performing calculations and logic operations required to execute a program. Read only memory (160) and random access memory (165) constitute the main memory of the computer. Disk controller 170 interfaces one or more disk drives to the system bus 150. These disk drives may be floppy disk drives, such as 173, internal or external hard drives, such as 172, or CD ROM or DVD (Digital Video Disks) drives such as 171. A display interface 175 interfaces a high resolution display 120 and permits information from the bus to be displayed on the display. An eyetracker 190 is connected to the bus on eyetracker interface 189 . It locates the position at which a user's eyes are looking. Many of the control functions described herein are activated based upon where a user is looking. Communications with external devices can occur over communications port 185. Figure 1C illustrates an exemplary memory medium which can be used with drives such as 173 in Figure 1B or 110A in Figure 1A. Typically, memory media such as a floppy disk, a CD ROM, or a Digital Video Disk will contain the program information for controlling the computer to enable the computer to perform its testing and development functions in accordance with the invention. Figure 2 is a front view of a multi-display computer console. The console of Figure 2 shows N display monitors 210-1 through 210-n. They are set in a regular array within the console housing. Shown on top of the console, are eyetracker sensors 290 positioned so as to provide complete coverage over the entire surface of the monitor console. If a single eyetracker input device is not sufficient, then a plurality of eyetracker devices are utilized. These may be partitioned into zones in order to determine the location of an user's gaze with considerable accuracy. A multi-display console as shown in Figure 2, would normally be used with a rather complex system. Figure 3 illustrates opening of a message object at an user's location of gaze. The user's gaze is located on monitor 300 at a particular point in time when a message object 320 is invoked. As shown in Figure 3, the start of text in the message object window begins as closely as possible to the location of the user's gaze, indicated by the crossbars in this illustration, so that the user's eyes are positioned to begin reading immediately upon opening of the message window. Figure 4 is a flowchart of a process used for opening and clearing message objects. When a message condition or is detected (400), a message handler retrieves message text for display (405). The eyetracker determines if a user is looking away from the display (s). If the user is looking away, an audible alarm is sounded (415) to call the user's attention back to the display. If the user is looking at one of the displays (410), the identity of the display which has the user's attention is determined as well as the location of the user's gaze on that display (420). A message window is opened on the identified display at the location determined for the user's gaze (425). A message is displayed in the message window (430) and the system begins monitoring to determine if the user's eyes have traversed the message. If the user's eyes have not traversed the message (435-n) the process loops back to before block 430. If the user has viewed the text of the message, the text is cleared and the window for the message object is closed (440) and the process ends. The top of the text of the message is positioned as closely as possible to the user's gaze location to permit the user's eyes to rest as closely as possible upon the starting word of the text when the window is opened. Rather than monitoring to see if an user's eyes have traversed the message as a mechanism for clearing the message, it is possible to utilize a microphone 195, audio input interface 194 and voice recognition software to recognize that a user has spoken the word "OK" or the like, thus clearing the message upon user command. Summarizing the operation, when a message is to be displayed, the location of the user's gaze is determined and a message window is opened at the location of the user's gaze so that the text displayed by the message object will be at the location at which the user is looking. Once the user has read the message, as indicated by the user's eyes traversing the message window, the message may be cleared and normal processing resumed. As an alternative, a voice command may clear the error message. In this manner, the problems associated with prior art message handling have been overcome and the convenient and natural processing of error messages occurs in accordance with the invention. In this disclosure, there is shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention, but, as aforementioned, it is to be understood that the invention is capable of use in various other combinations and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed herein.

Claims: Apparatus for managing information on a display, comprising: an eyetracker (190) for detecting a location (310) at which a user's eyes are looking and a controller (155) for handling display of information on a display (300) characterised in that the controller (155) is configured to cause, without user request, display of an alert message (320) at said location (310) detected by the eyetracker (190) when said location is on said display. Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising said display (300). Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a computer. Apparatus according claim 3, further comprising an audio microphone (195), connected to said computer, for providing representations of speech to said computer and said computer configured to recognise a verbal message to clear an alert message. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein said controller is configured to cause the start of text of said alert message to be placed substantially at said location. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein said controller is configured to cause an alarm to be sounded to call the user's attention back to the display when said location is not on said display. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the controller is configured to cause said alert message to be cleared when said eyetracker indicates that the user's eyes have scanned said alert message. Apparatus according to any preceding claim including a plurality of displays (210-1, 210-n), wherein said controller is configured to cause display of said alert message for the user on a one of said plurality of displays at which the user is looking and at said location on said one of said plurality of displays. A computer system comprising a network and a plurality of computers connected to said network, at least one of said computers having apparatus according to any preceding claim. A method of managing information on a display comprising: providing means (190) for detecting a location (310) at which a user's eyes are looking and providing means (155) for handling display of information on a display (300) characterised by configuring said handling means (155) to cause, without user request, display of an alert message (320) at said detected location (310) when said location is on said display. A method according to claim 10, further comprising providing means for sounding an alarm and configuring said handling means (155) to cause said alarm to be sounded if said location is not on a display. A method according to claim 10 or 11, comprising configuring said handling means (155) to cause the start of text of said alert message to be displayed at said location. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, comprising configuring said handling means (155) to cause removal of said message if the eyes of said user have traversed said message. A method according to anyone of claims 10 to 13, comprising configuring said handling means (155) to cause said alert message to be displayed on a one of a plurality of displays at which the user is looking and at said location on said one of said plurality of displays. A computer program stored on a medium including instructions for: detecting a location (310) at which a user's eyes are looking and handling display of information on a display (300) characterised by causing, without user request, display of an alert message (320) at said detected location (310) when said location is on said display.

Inventors: TOGNAZZINI BRUCE, TOGNAZZINI, BRUCE
Applicants: SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.
Application year: 1997
Main classification: G06F3
IPC codes: G06F3