Automatic low-level overlays on presentations to support regaining an audience’s attention

Abstract

In a world full of distractions, keeping an audience focused on a presentation is getting increasingly difficult. In this paper, we propose a system that supports presenters in a nearly subliminal way to regain attention of the overall audience. The system uses a measure of motion complexity inside the audience area as an estimate for overall attention. It then applies low-level visual overlays over presentations if the estimated level of attention is getting too low. Ideally, these dynamically adapted visual overlays can be detected in the peripheral field of view but not in the foveal field of view. In a pilot study with 14 participants, we tested the feasibility of this approach with a simplified version of the system, limiting stimuli to red colored overlays up to an opacity of 20%. First results show that motion complexity can indeed be a good indicator of distractions and low-level visual overlays can lead to a higher perceived level of agitation. However, the visual effects used in this pilot study have been partly perceived by the audience. Further work is needed to identify visual stimuli that are best fitted for recapturing attention without irritating those already focused on the presentation.