Virtual Camera Focus Tracking Across 3D User Interfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for tracking user focus in digital environments, such as cursor position, are inadequate, especially for touch screen devices, and fail to capture comprehensive user interaction data across diverse input devices.
Innovation Solution
A data processing system that tracks user focus by analyzing user actions controlling a virtual camera's position and orientation relative to a three-dimensional model, considering viewport dimensions and time between actions, to determine spatial distribution of focus, agnostic to input device type.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If cursor position is used as a proxy for user focus, then user focus can be tracked in traditional computing environments, but the accuracy and applicability deteriorate for touch screen devices and diverse input devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by replacing device-specific cursor position tracking with a unified virtual camera framework that works across all input device types (mouse, touch screen, keyboard, etc.). The virtual camera serves as a universal proxy for user focus regardless of how the user interacts with the system, enabling consistent focus measurement across diverse platforms without requiring device-specific implementations.
2Loss of information
If existing focus tracking methods are used, then simple implementations are possible, but comprehensive user interaction information is not captured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual camera as an intermediary construct that mediates between user actions and focus tracking. Instead of directly analyzing complex user interactions with the interface, the virtual camera translates all user actions (regardless of input device) into camera position and orientation changes, providing a unified representation of user focus that captures comprehensive interaction information while simplifying the tracking implementation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional cursor position tracking to three-dimensional virtual camera position and orientation tracking. This dimensional expansion allows the system to capture focus information from multiple perspectives and account for spatial relationships in 3D environments, enabling comprehensive capture of user interaction patterns that go beyond simple 2D plane tracking.
Data Source
AI summary
A data processing system for tracking user focus in a digital environment includes communication means arranged to receive, from each of a plurality of user devices, input data indicating one or more user actions performed via the user device while the user device renders, from a perspective of a virtual camera controlled by said one or more user actions, a three-dimensional model commonly provided to the plurality of user devices. The received input data further indicates, for each user action, a focal position on the three-dimensional model relating to a position and/or orientation of the virtual camera relative to the three-dimensional model following the user action. The data processing system further comprises processing means arranged to determine, using the received input data, a spatial distribution of user focus on the three-dimensional model, in dependence on the indicated focal positions for the respective user actions.