Diff Displays: highlight changes on the second / third display in the background

^{Dimming background displays and highlighting changes using the PixMap method}

If you work with multiple monitors, you probably understand the problem. Looking from one screen to another, it is difficult to quickly understand what has changed there. Diff Displays technology should help in such situations. In short, the system tracks the direction of the user's gaze. If the look leaves the display, then there is activated an intermediate layer, which darkens or discolors the image, highlighting the changes. As soon as the look returns, the display also returns to normal. Instead of blackout and discoloration, other methods can be used, see the video under the cat.

The results of the experiment showed that such a “screensaver” significantly reduces eyestrain due to darkening of the background screens and increases productivity. The user quickly switches attention from one screen to another, and the background vision works with benefit, because even in the background it is noticeable if something has changed on the neighboring screens.


^{Discoloring background displays using the FreezeFrame method}
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The video shows several templates by which Diff Displays can work.



The system is still in an experimental stage, but last week the developers posted a demo version of the program (under Windows):

DiffDisplays.zip

The scientific work with the research results was published recently in the journal Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 137-147) , pdf .