Extended Reality Focus Modes for Distraction Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Extended reality systems often fail to maintain user focus due to distracting elements in the physical environment, which interfere with engagement in specific tasks.
Innovation Solution
A wearable system with sensors and a processor identifies distracting elements in the physical environment and generates an extended reality environment that replaces or modifies these elements with additional content to reduce distractions, using focus modes tailored to the user's activity and attention state.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the extended reality environment includes a reproduction of the physical environment, then the user experience is more immersive and realistic, but distracting elements in the physical environment interfere with user focus on tasks
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and identifies specific distracting objects from the physical environment using image processing and machine learning algorithms. Once identified, these objects are selectively removed or replaced with virtual content in the extended reality environment, allowing the rest of the physical environment to remain visible and immersive while eliminating only the distracting elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different treatments to different regions of the physical environment. Rather than uniformly replacing or blocking the entire physical environment, it selectively modifies only the regions containing distracting objects while preserving other regions. This allows local customization of the environment based on distraction levels and user task requirements.
2Reliability
If the system replaces distracting objects with additional content, then user focus is improved, but the complexity of the system increases due to object identification and environment generation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification and classification of objects in the physical environment before the user begins a task. By pre-processing the environment and identifying potential distracting objects in advance, the system reduces the computational burden during task execution and provides smoother, more reliable focus maintenance without requiring complex real-time processing during the actual task.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary processing layer between the physical environment capture and the extended reality display. This intermediary layer includes image processing algorithms, object recognition models, and content generation modules that automatically handle the complexity of environment analysis and transformation, shielding the user from the underlying system complexity while maintaining reliable focus support.
3Measurement precision
If the system monitors user physiological parameters to detect engagement, then the accuracy of distraction identification is improved, but the complexity and cost of the wearable system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wearable system uses multi-functional sensors that can serve multiple purposes. For example, cameras used for environment capture also perform eye gaze tracking; accelerometers used for motion detection also detect head movements related to attention. This multi-functionality improves measurement precision without proportionally increasing system complexity, as the same hardware components perform multiple measurement tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the user's own physiological responses and behavioral patterns as natural indicators of engagement and distraction. By analyzing existing data from sensors already present in the wearable device (such as gaze duration, head position, and interaction patterns), the system self-determines engagement levels without requiring additional specialized sensors, thereby improving precision while minimizing added complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are directed to aspects of the extended reality environments that are selected or otherwise modified to account for distracting stimuli. Similarly, one or more metrics that reflect, or are otherwise indicative of, a user's ability to focus on a current or upcoming activity may be used to adjust a user's interaction with the extended reality environment. The extended reality environment can generated by an extended reality system that includes a head-mounted display, a set of sensors and a processor configured to enter a focus mode that reduces distraction in an extended reality environment. While in the focus mode, the process or can receive imaging data of a physical environment around a user using the set of sensors and generate the extended reality environment that includes a reproduction of the first region of the physical environment where an identified object is replaced with the additional content.