Eloquent Scenery: A Study of Peripheral Visual Communication

This thesis proposes a mechanism of background task communication for workstations. Dynamic visual objects called Gestures are used as signs by the computer to reach an otherwise occupied user. The primary, dynamic visual properties of these Gestures are position, texture, intensity, chromaticity, stain, orientation, shape, and size. The dynamism of each property is defined by a set of secondary, static properties. The valued properties are defined by an offset value, a value path, a path extent, and a path period. The imaged properties are defined by a collection of images, an index path, and an image rate. The different properties can be allocated independently for different message roles. This thesis considers how strong the various properties are at attracting the user's attention for important messages, at visually accenting messages so that relevant messages can be found quickly, and at providing simple information. The specific types of information considered are quantitative or continuous, valued information; ordinal or discrete, ordered information; and nominal or discrete, unordered information. This thesis also briefly considers the coor-dination of the various properties to form signs analogous to the gestural signs of deaf sig