Interrupted by Your Pupil: An Interruption Management System Based on Pupil Dilation

Abstract

Interruptions are prevalent in everyday life and can be very disruptive. An important factor that affects the level of disruptiveness is the timing of the interruption: Interruptions at low-workload moments are known to be less disruptive than interruptions at high-workload moments. In this study, we developed a task-independent interruption management system (IMS) that interrupts users at low-workload moments in order to minimize the disruptiveness of interruptions. The IMS identifies low-workload moments in real time by measuring users' pupil dilation, which is a well-known indicator of workload. Using an experimental setup we showed that the IMS succeeded in finding the optimal moments for interruptions and marginally improved performance. Because our IMS is task-independent-it does not require a task analysis-it can be broadly applied.

Predicting Uninterruptible Durations of Office Workers by Using Probabilistic Work Continuance Model

“…Züger et al used electroencephalograph (EEG) data and electrodermal activity (EDA) [27]. Katidioti et al focused on pupil dilation as a measure of cognitive workload [28].…”

Mobile pupillometry in manual assembly: A pilot study exploring the wearability and external validity of a renowned mental workload lab measure

“…Air traffic controllers revealed to have larger pupils under increased task difficulty (cf., Ahlstrom and Friedman-berg 2006;Truschzinski et al 2018) and pupil sizes in participants in a simulated piloting task were larger when task demands increased (Causse, Peysakhovich, & Fabre, 2016). Based on real-time pupil dilation data, Katidioti et al (2016) even developed a task-independent interruption management system (IMS) while simulating the job context of an employee in an electronics company answering to emails and being interrupted by chat messages. In a gaze interactive assembly instruction, Hansen et al…”

Using Biometric Sensors to Measure Productivity

“…A larger pupil would be indicative of higher productivity. In fact, we have previously used pupil size as a marker for when it would be best to interrupt the user [5]. Interruptions are generally best when a person is experiencing low workload, i.e., when he or she is somewhere between subtasks, not when he or she is trying to remember something or manipulate complex information in his mind.…”