Attention and Pervasive Computing

Attention is one of the most limited mental resources. The capacity of our visual attention is challenged by the increasingly rich media content and decreasing size of user interfaces embedded in many everyday appliances. Observations in fields such as advertising, with lengthy traditions in investigating the effects of visual attention and recognition may offer insights into effective interface design for pervasive computing applications. This study examines the impact of repetition and attention on recognition for four types of online ads: horizontal and vertical ads appearing in both animated and static forms. The authors observed that repetition enhanced recognition of ads, and that animated ads were generally better recognized while the effect of ad format was less significant. This chapter measured attention by eye fixations and fixation durations and found a strong relationship between attention and ad recognition.