Improving readability of content displayed on a screen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9811161-B2
Application number	US-201615107348-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2016
Priority date	Apr 5, 2016
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

A device for improving readability of content displayed to a viewer is provided. The device has a screen for displaying the content, a motion sensor for measuring a displacement, and an eye tracker for measuring a change in gaze of the viewer when gazing at the screen. The device is operative to adjust the displayed content so as to improve its readability in response to determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync. The out-of-sync condition may be determined by deriving a phase difference between the measured change in gaze and the measure displacement of the device, and comparing the derived phase difference to a threshold value. The displayed content is adjusted by at least one of increasing a font size of displayed text, enlarging one or more displayed graphical objects, and increasing a zoom level of the displayed content.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for improving readability of content displayed to a viewer, comprising:
a screen for displaying the content to the viewer,
a motion sensor for measuring a displacement of the device and
an eye tracker for measuring a change in gaze of the viewer when gazing at the screen,
the device comprising at least one processor being configured to,
determine that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync by operations comprising:
deriving a phase difference between the measured change in gaze and the measured displacement of the device, and
determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync if the derived phase difference exceeds a threshold value, and
in response to determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync, adjust the displayed content so as to improve the readability of the displayed content.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further being configured to adjust the displayed content gradually responsive to increasing derived phase difference.

3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further being configured to determine that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync by further operations comprising:
measuring at least one of an amplitude and a frequency of the displacement of the device, and
determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync if at least one of the measured amplitude and the measured frequency of the displacement of the device exceeds a corresponding threshold value.

4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further being configured to adjust the displayed content in response to determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device have been out-of-sync for a specified period of time.

5. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further being configured to adjust the displayed content so as to improve readability by at least one of increasing a font size of displayed text, enlarging one or more displayed graphical objects, and increasing a zoom level of the displayed content.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the eye tracker comprises a camera configured for imaging the eye or eyes of the viewer, wherein the at least one processor is further being configured to measure the change in gaze of the viewer by image processing a series of images captured by the camera.

7. The device according to claim 6 , wherein the camera is mounted on the same face of the device as the screen.

8. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the eye tracker comprises an infra-red light source and an infra-red light detector, wherein the at least one processor is further being configured to measure the change in gaze of the viewer based on infra-red light originating from the infra-red light source and being reflected by the eye or eyes of the viewer and detected by the infra-red light detector.

9. The device according to claim 1 , being a device for handheld operation.

10. The device according to claim 1 , being one of a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a gaming console, a media player, and a laptop.

11. The device according to claim 1 , being mounted in a vehicle.

12. The device according to claim 1 , wherein:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate the threshold value based on measurements of the determined phase difference that are determined to be associated with when one or more viewers chooses to cease gazing at content displayed on the viewer.

13. A method of a device, of improving readability of content displayed to a viewer, the method comprising:
obtaining a measurement of a displacement of the device,
obtaining a measurement of a change in gaze of the viewer when gazing at a screen comprised in the device,
determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync by operations comprising
deriving a phase difference between the measured change in gaze and the measured displacement of the device, and
determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync if the derived phase difference exceeds a threshold value, and

in response to determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync, adjusting the displayed content so as to improve the readability of the displayed content.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the displayed content is adjusted gradually responsive to increasing derived phase difference.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync comprises:
measuring at least one of an amplitude and a frequency of the displacement of the device, and
determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device are out-of-sync if at least one of the measured amplitude and the measured frequency of the displacement of the device exceeds a corresponding threshold value.

16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the displayed content is adjusted in response to determining that the change in gaze and the displacement of the device have been out-of-sync for a specified period of time.

17. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the adjusting the displayed content so as to improve readability comprises at least one of increasing a font size of displayed text, enlarging one or more displayed graphical objects, and increasing a zoom level of the displayed content.

18. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the obtaining the measurement of the change in gaze of the viewer comprises image processing a series of images captured by a camera comprised in the device and being configured for imaging the eye or eyes of the viewer.

19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein the camera is mounted on the same face of the device as the screen.

20. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the obtaining the measurement of the change in gaze of the viewer comprises detecting infra-red light by an infra-red light detector comprised in the device, which infra-red light is originating from an infra-red light source comprised in the device and being reflected by the eye or eyes of the viewer.

21. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the device is a device for handheld operation.

22. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the device is one of a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a gaming console, a media player, and a laptop.

23. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the device is mounted in a vehicle.

24. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
generating the threshold value based on measurements of the determined phase difference that are determined to be associated with when one or more viewers chooses to cease gazing at content displayed on the viewer.

25. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a device cause the device to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a measurement of a displacement of the device,
obtaining a measurement of a change in gaze of a viewer when gazing at a screen comprised in the device,
determining that the change in gaze and the displace

Assignees

• ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

Inventors

• Jönsson Tomas
• Arngren Tommy
• Wänstedt Stefan
• Ökvist Peter

Classifications

• G09G2340/14

  Solving problems related to the presentation of information to be displayed · CPC title

• G06T2207/30201

  Face · CPC title

• G06F3/0304

  Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means (constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042) · CPC title

• G06F3/0346

  with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a three-dimensional [3D] space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors · CPC title

• G09G5/26

  for modifying the character dimensions, e.g. double width, double height · CPC title