Notification Timing Control While Reading Text Information.

The various notifications received on computers while being used interrupt users’ reading experience, negatively affect their emotions, and increase the cognitive load. Many studies have focused on user behavior and user state to control the notification timing. Blinking has been applied as a type of physical activity to detect users’ interests and emotions, detect driver fatigue, and design interactive robots. In this study, we focused on breakpoints while reading text information depending on the blink frequency during concentrated reading as a method to control notification timing. We constructed a system that controls notification timing based on the detected breakpoint. In the experiment, we simulated a real reading environment using the prototype of the system. We evaluated the detection times of the breakpoints and the effectiveness of the system. Although we have not proven the hypothesis that the expected breakpoint is detected based on the blink frequency, we found that the users’ browsing experience was improved when they used the control system.