Peripheral Motion Displays: Tapping the Potential of the Visual Periphery

Abstract

We address the challenge to develop a “peripheral display” with information readable from the corner of the eye. This interest is spurred by the need to convey information outside the central vision, in order to allow the operator the freedom to look elsewhere in the world. We show that low contrast motion patterns are particularly suited. The information capacity is sufficient for at least 10 messages and, perhaps surprisingly, peripheral motion messages distract little. The messages can intuitively be categorized as “urgent” and “not-urgent“. With the peripheral motion designs overlaid on a route navigation system we demonstrate 1) the excellent peripheral readability, 2) intuitive coding of urgency, and 3) minimal effect on the readability of the standard navigation information.