The Role of Perspective Cues in RSVP
My early research focussed on the field of Information Visualisation, and in particular, Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. This project, conducted alongside my undergraduate studies, investigated how certain perspective cues affects user performance in a simple image search task. better understand the competing effects of psychologically prefering 3D environments, but also the negative effects of the speficic visual cues that create this effect, such as non-linear scaling over time and motion blurring.
Research Aims
- To better understand the visual impact of two strong visual perspective cues: magnification and environmental artefacs.
- To investigate (in a specific and limited way) the hypothesis that humans have an evolutionary preference for 3D environments.
- To investigate the possibility of a previously unidentified visual depth cue, rotation, via the Deep-Flat optical illusion.
RSVP
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) is a presentation technique for large collections of visual stimuli. The stimuli (words or images) are presented very fast, one at a time, to a user. Studies have shown that it is possible to correctly identify a previously seen target image at a rate of 10 per second. The effect is similar to riffling through the pages in a book. RSVP has been implemented in many ways in different designs. These can be classified in a number of ways - static/moving, single/multiple entry, 2D/3D - each with different aesthetic and performance characteristics.
Creating Depth
Despite the generation of a number of RSVP modes that utilise an illusion of depth, there is no evidence for the effects of creating this illusion. There has also been no investigation into the behaviour of the different design elements that make up that effect. I therefore designed and ran an investigation into how these design features (which we refer to as ‘depth cues’) create the effect of depth and how they impact on the performance and usability of the interface.
Outcomes
This investigation produced a great deal of useful data and my method, results and conclusions are reported in the paper ‘The Role of Perspective Cues in RSVP’. I was very excited to present this paper at the 21st International Conference on Information Visualisation, IV2017, at London Southbank University, where it generated considerable interest from delegates.
Key Collaborators
- Emeritus Professor Robert Spence, Imperial College London
- Dr Mark Witkowski, Imperial College London
- Dr Kent Wittenburg, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs
- Dr James Mardell, Arachnys Information Services
Financial Support
This research project was supported by the EPSRC via a vacation bursary.