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Updated: Jul 20, 2026
Methods to Test Visual Attention Online
Published on: February 19, 2015
Development and evaluation of different methods to assess download and display time of image web systems
M Pietsch1, A Schlaefke, T J Vogl
1Department of Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Tiergartenstrasse 15, 69121, Heidelberg, Germany.
Objectives:
The aim of this study was to develop and verify different methods of measuring time-to-display (TTD) for radiological images with image web systems (IWS). The process should be automatable in order to repeatedly perform a large number of measurements without human interaction.
Materials And Methods:
Three methods were defined and compared with respect to usability, stability, and quality of results. Method 1 was based on Windows 2000 Performance Monitor, whereas method 2 employed phototransistors taped to the screen and connected to a separate PC. A software tool developed for method 3, which used Windows application programming interface (API) function, calls to read the color code assigned to specific pixels on the screen.
Results:
Method 3 proved to be the most reliable and easy to automate. The accuracy is practically equivalent to method 2, but it proved to be far more automatable. Method 1 produced the largest mean error, was easily disturbed, but was also easy to set up and provided additional insights into the system's architecture especially if combined with method 3.
Conclusions:
To measure the performance of image distribution systems, any of these methods can be used, but method 3 proved to be superior.
