Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Focus by view?

(1/1)

peter.s:
As you know, I'm into outliners, the (available) 2-pane kind, and doing it simili-3-pane, by an additional file manager pane being my "project pane", far to the left of my screens. As you also know (since I bothered you with the descriptions of this setup more than you would have asked for), I got a second screen for the respective "input", i.e. internet browser (FF), Excel, pdf's, and so on, and you know I do the interaction between all this by AHK.

Now where I've got real probs, and which cannot be resolved by AHK means or any other such tool, is, I bought some additional keypads and such, in order to set focus, and/or to have DIFFERENT pgup/pgdown/etc. buttons for those several frames...

I've said this before, just tiny additional keypads/keyboards are realistic in any way (Cherry 4700 being something "great" since really cheap, in comparison), and then, sacrifying the original keypad, outside Excel/TenKey/etc.

This being said, I never discovered a realistic/"ready-for-prime-time" way of switching between my "multiple" frames, i.e. PM frame (by it by AHK, btw. I'll share such a thing in some time; be it by a tiny-sized file manager window; frame 1), your "main applic" (with, speaking of traditional outliners, 2 main frames, tree (frame 2) and content (frame 3)); be it your "source frame" (whatever its current content may be; frame 4).

I've tried them all, F keys for selecting focus, then the dedicated pgup/pgdn/etc. keys; additional keyboards with dedicated keys (Cherry 4700, original keypad, and also a Preh 128 keys-kb); also, lately, my "best solution" had been to do some toggles/set-ups by which, AHK switched focus automatically, depending on inactivity-by-seconds-and-frame--having-had-focus-previously (and setup/toggle in question).

Ok, there are touch-screens now, but, let's be realistic: You always need your kb, on your table, and any screen beyond that primal set-up; there is no space to lay down a touch-screen in front of you. Then, you might place a touch-screen nearer to your body/eyes/hands than you would place a traditional screen, but is that a real good idea for your neck, after all? And anyway, reaching out, with your finger, to anything beyond your kb is not that realistic for 14-hours work days, right?

Thus, there is no doubt whatsoever that we need (sorry for the "we" here, but I assume we've, more or less, similar probs, and even if you've just got 2 regular frames, not 4, as I've got, and if you've got 1 big screen, not 2 minor ones, like I do: Every "switching frames" from within your keyboard will get into your way, i.e. will constitute an hindrance to your "work flow": It will have nothing to do with any "intuitive computering". (I even considered "foot pedals" for this... OMG!)

That's why ALL OF US need the very simplest of things there could be: A camera above our screen(s), and which will monitor our eye movements (and which is NOT connected to the net, btw), and by which's perceptions (i.e. you look at some frame for more than x ms, and ideally, this time lag should be individual to every frame!!!!!) some sw will switch focus to that frame, in order for THAT FRAME to respond to your kb, incl. any navigation keys and all.

Fellow DC's, any ideas? ;-)

(I'd write it myself and share it happily with you, wasn't it for the camera's eye movements' monitoring part of such sw...)



EDIT: Not only the time frame, for each frame, should be individual, but also, the camera sw should differenciate if, within a frame, you look straight at a precise point (= then, the sw should switch focus quite quickly), or if your're "searching"/"reading" something within that frame, in which case focus switch should NOT be made as soon as that or not at all, except if your're looking at the end of the visible text/list there, in which case it should even scroll... You see, I'm delusionally dreaming...)

IainB:
Not sure whether this is what you are after, but it might help. If you do a DuckGo search on "computer which tracks the user's eye movements" you will come up with quite a lot of hits about this kind of technology, and where it has already been implemented.
For example:

* $30 gadget lets you control computer with your eyes - CNN.com
* This Video Of Super Precise Eye-Tracking Software Is Insanely Impressive | Business Insider

Navigation

[0] Message Index