New Immersive Media to Broaden Attention and Awareness

We present a new and immersive form of imaging technology, Fovography, which has shown measurable benefits in the broadening of attention. Narrow fixation on screens, such as tablets and smartphones, and resultant neglect of peripheral visual field may be harmful to visual perception and cognitive functioning, with consequent effects on psychological health and wellbeing. Many immersive technologies and virtual reality systems, which narrow the focus of attention to the central visual area, are used in clinics, surgical theatres, treatments and training, and may be doing harm as well as good. We aim to improve existing imaging technologies, which are based on linear perspective, by developing more perceptually natural technologies that are modelled on human perception and awareness, and incorporate peripheral sensory information for improved naturalistic perspective. We have empirically tested the benefits of Fovography technology in the areas of attention modulation, user preference, immersion, empathy, visual comfort and spatial presence. Potential applications include tools for mindfulness training, spatial awareness, perceptual psychology, and other medical or therapeutic uses. The benefits of our approach include greater reported wellbeing due to decreased anxiety and fixation.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Tony Langford

Alistair Burleigh

Nicole Ruta

Robert Pepperell

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 323-330

Affiliations

[0001]Fovolab

Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2018.63

SO-VID: 7d529545-508e-45ea-922e-d191f6085d5d

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

Conference acronym: EVA

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 9 - 13 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2018.63

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

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C. A. du Fresnoy 1695 De arte graphica; or The art of painting J. DrydenJ. HeptinstallW. Rogers London
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J. J. Gibson 1950 The Perception of the Visual World, Houghton Mifflin Boston
J. J. Gibson 1971 The Information Available in Pictures Leonardo 4(1):27 35
E. Gombrich 1972 The ‘What’ and the ‘How’: Perspective Representation and the Phenomenal World R. RudnerI. Scheffler (eds.) 1972 Logic and Art: Essays in Honor of Nelson Goodman Bobbs Merrill New York
E. Gombrich 1982 The Image and the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation Phaidon London
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D. Hockney 1987 The Way I See It Thames & Hudson London
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C. W. LeeP. Cuijpers 2013 A Meta-analysis of the Contribution of Eye Movements in Processing Emotional Memories Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 44(2):231 239
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E. Panofsky 1997 Perspective as Symbolic Form C. S. Wood Zone Books New York
M. I. Posner 1980 Orienting of attention Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(1):3 25
S. Porges 2009 The polyvagal theory: New insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system Cleve Clin J Med., 76(Suppl. 2): S86 S90
J. P. RollandH. Fuchs 2000 Optical versus video see-through head-mounted displays in medical visualization Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 9(3):287 309
E. RoschL. ThompsonF. Varela 1991 The embodied mind Cognitive Science and Human Experience.
N. RutaA. BurleighE. BarrattR. Pepperell 2017 How does image geometry affect attention? Developing a novel gamified version of spatial orienting paradigm. Poster presented at the European Conference on Visual Perception 2017 Berlin, Germany
D. J. Siegel 2009 Mindful awareness, mindsight, and neural integration The Humanistic Psychologist, 37(2):137 158
C. H. SmithJ. RasoolN. LambertR. PepperellT. LangfordL. KorkovelouA. Burleigh 2017 Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2017) London, UK 11-26 July 2017 258 263 BCS, London
T. J. Smith 2012 The attentional theory of cinematic continuity Projections, 6(1):1 27
B. W. Tatler 2007 The central fixation bias in scene viewing: Selecting an optimal viewing position independently of motor biases and image feature distributions Journal of Vision 7(14):4.1 17
B. W. TatlerM. M. HayhoeM. F. LandD. Ballard 2011 Eye guidance in natural vision: Reinterpreting salience Journal of Vision 11(5 )
R. TeperM. Inzlicht 2013 Meditation, mindfulness and executive control: the importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 8(1):85 92
L. R. ValmaggiaL. LatifM. J. KemptonM. Rus-Calafell 2016 Virtual Reality in the Psychological Treatment for Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review of Recent Evidence Psychiatry Research 236:189 195
H. H. WilmerL. E. ShermanJ. M. Chein 2017 Smartphones and Cognition: A review of research exploring the links between mobile technology habits and cognitive functioning Frontiers in Psychology 8
S. Zhang 2015 The Obscure Neuroscience Problem That’s Plaguing VR Wired http://bit.ly/2DDLiXn (retrieved 26 September 2017 )

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] E. AntonovaP. ChadwickV. Kumari 2015 More Meditation, Less Habituation? The Effect of Mindfulness Practice on the Acoustic Startle Reflex Plos One, 10.5

[2] S. Anstis 1998 Picturing peripheral acuity Perception, 27:817 825

[3] K. Bermingham 2015 Mindfulness: an effective mental health treatment but not a panacea The Guardian http://bit.ly/2G3u6Qr (retrieved 26 September 2017 )

[4] G. DiazJ. CooperM. Hayhoe 2013 Memory and prediction in natural gaze control Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Biological Sciences 368(1628):20130064

[5] J. Dunne 2011 Toward an Understanding of Non-dual Mindfulness Contemporary Buddhism 12(1):71 88

[6] N. FarbJ. DaubenmierC. J. PriceT. GardC. KerrB. D. DunnA. C. KleinM. P PaulusW. E. Mehling 2017 Interoception, Contemplative Practice, and Health Frontiers Research Topics.

[7] L. FehmiJ. Robbins 2008 The open-focus brain: harnessing the power of attention to heal mind and body Trumpeter, Boston

[8] F. Franck 1973 The Zen of Seeing Wildwood House London

[9] E. Gendlin 1992 The primacy of the body, not the primacy of perception Man and World, 25(3):341 353

[10] C. A. du Fresnoy 1695 De arte graphica; or The art of painting J. DrydenJ. HeptinstallW. Rogers London

[11] S. Gallop 1996), Peripheral Visual Awareness: The Central issue Journal of Behavioural Optometry 7 (6):151 155

[12] J. J. Gibson 1950 The Perception of the Visual World, Houghton Mifflin Boston

[13] J. J. Gibson 1971 The Information Available in Pictures Leonardo 4(1):27 35

[14] E. Gombrich 1972 The ‘What’ and the ‘How’: Perspective Representation and the Phenomenal World R. RudnerI. Scheffler (eds.) 1972 Logic and Art: Essays in Honor of Nelson Goodman Bobbs Merrill New York

[15] E. Gombrich 1982 The Image and the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation Phaidon London

[16] W. HasenkampL. Barsalou 2012 Effects of Meditation Experience on Functional Connectivity of Distributed Brain Networks Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6

[17] D. Hockney 1987 The Way I See It Thames & Hudson London

[18] Y. Hsin-HaoT. A. ChaplinA. J. DaviesR. VermaM.G.P Rosa.2012 A Specialized Area in Limbic Cortex for Fast Analysis of Peripheral Vision Current Biology 22(14):1351 1357

[19] J. Kabat-Zinn 2005 Coming to Our Senses Piatkus Books London

[20] V. KavcicW. VaughnC. J. Duffy 2011 Distinct Visual Motion Processing Impairments In Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Vision Research 51(3):386 395

[21] M. Kemp 1990 The science of art: Optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat., CT Yale University Press, New Haven

[22] R. KonradN. PadmanabanK. MolnerE. A. CooperG. Wetzstein 2017 Accommodation-invariant computational near-eye displays ACM Transactions on Graphics 36(4):88

[23] M. F. LandN. MennieJ. Rusted 1999 The roles of vision and eye movements in the control of activities of daily living Perception, 28:1311 1328

[24] C. W. LeeP. Cuijpers 2013 A Meta-analysis of the Contribution of Eye Movements in Processing Emotional Memories Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 44(2):231 239

[25] J. LimS. H. ChangJ. LeeK. Kim 2017 Effects of smartphone texting on the visual perception and dynamic walking stability Journal of exercise rehabilitation 13(1):48

[26] L. LoschkyA. NuthmannF. FortenbaughD. M. Levi 2017 Scene perception from central to peripheral vision Journal of Vision, 17(1):1 5

[27] A. LutzA. P. JhaJ. D. DunneC. D. Saron 2015 Investigating the Phenomenological Matrix of Mindfulness-related Practices from a Neurocognitive Perspective American Psychologist, 70(7):632 658

[28] C. LutzG. RanziniM. Meckel 2014 Stress 2.0: Social Media Overload Among Swiss Teenagers Communication and Information Technologies Annual Studies in Media and Communications, pp. 3 24

[29] M. MadaryT. K. Metzinger 2016 Real Virtuality, A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 3, n. pag. Web

[30] D. MarklandL. Hardy 1997 On the factorial and construct validity of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory: Conceptual and operational concerns Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 68(1):20 32

[31] I. McGilchrist 2009 The Master and His Emissary Yale University Press London

[32] J. T. McKnightL. G. Fehmi 2008 Attention and Neurofeedback Synchrony Training: Clinical Results and Their Significance Journal of Neurotherapy 5(1-2):45 61

[33] P.K. MitalT. J. SmithR. L. HillJ. M. Henderson 2011 Clustering of gaze during dynamic scene viewing is predicted by motion Cognitive Computation, 3(1):5 24

[34] M. NazemiD. GromalaM. Karamnejad 2014), Virtual Reality as Analgesia: An Alternative Approach for Managing Chronic Pain International Journal of Creative Interfaces and Computer Graphics 5(2 )

[35] P. PayneP LevineM. Crane-Godreau,2015 Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy Frontiers in Psychology, 6(93 )

[36] R. Pepperell 2012 The perception of art and the science of perception R. Pepperell;2017 Imaging Human Vision: An Artistic Perspective Human Vision and Electronic Imaging, Proc. of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging

[37] R. PepperellA. Burleigh 2014 Improvements in and relating to image making International Patent Treaty Cooperation WO2014122477 A1

[38] E. Panofsky 1997 Perspective as Symbolic Form C. S. Wood Zone Books New York

[39] M. I. Posner 1980 Orienting of attention Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(1):3 25

[40] S. Porges 2009 The polyvagal theory: New insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system Cleve Clin J Med., 76(Suppl. 2): S86 S90

[41] J. P. RollandH. Fuchs 2000 Optical versus video see-through head-mounted displays in medical visualization Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 9(3):287 309

[42] E. RoschL. ThompsonF. Varela 1991 The embodied mind Cognitive Science and Human Experience.

[43] N. RutaA. BurleighE. BarrattR. Pepperell 2017 How does image geometry affect attention? Developing a novel gamified version of spatial orienting paradigm. Poster presented at the European Conference on Visual Perception 2017 Berlin, Germany

[44] D. J. Siegel 2009 Mindful awareness, mindsight, and neural integration The Humanistic Psychologist, 37(2):137 158

[45] C. H. SmithJ. RasoolN. LambertR. PepperellT. LangfordL. KorkovelouA. Burleigh 2017 Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2017) London, UK 11-26 July 2017 258 263 BCS, London

[46] T. J. Smith 2012 The attentional theory of cinematic continuity Projections, 6(1):1 27

[47] B. W. Tatler 2007 The central fixation bias in scene viewing: Selecting an optimal viewing position independently of motor biases and image feature distributions Journal of Vision 7(14):4.1 17

[48] B. W. TatlerM. M. HayhoeM. F. LandD. Ballard 2011 Eye guidance in natural vision: Reinterpreting salience Journal of Vision 11(5 )

[49] R. TeperM. Inzlicht 2013 Meditation, mindfulness and executive control: the importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 8(1):85 92

[50] L. R. ValmaggiaL. LatifM. J. KemptonM. Rus-Calafell 2016 Virtual Reality in the Psychological Treatment for Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review of Recent Evidence Psychiatry Research 236:189 195

[51] H. H. WilmerL. E. ShermanJ. M. Chein 2017 Smartphones and Cognition: A review of research exploring the links between mobile technology habits and cognitive functioning Frontiers in Psychology 8

[52] S. Zhang 2015 The Obscure Neuroscience Problem That’s Plaguing VR Wired http://bit.ly/2DDLiXn (retrieved 26 September 2017 )

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