Incorporating Perceptual Task Effort into the Recognition of Intention in Information Graphics

The rapidly increasing availability of electronic publications containing information graphics poses some interesting challenges in terms of information access. For example, visually impaired individuals should ideally be provided with access to the knowledge that would be gleaned from viewing the information graphic. Similarly, digital libraries must take into account the content of information graphics when constructing indices. This paper outlines our approach to recognizing the intended message of an information graphic, focusing on the concept of perceptual task effort, its role in the inference process, our rules for estimating effort, and the results of an eye tracking experiment conducted in order to evaluate and modify those rules.