Measuring Visual Saliency.

Book chapter, 2008

A new method of measuring visual saliency has been introduced by the Dutch psychologist Alexander Wertheim. By looking at the target that is to be measured, and moving the gaze point radially out from the target until the target can no longer be detected, an angle between the target and the point of no detection can be measured. This angle can be used as a measurement of the conspicuity of the target. In the study presented here, this “conspicuity index” shows good correlations to intuitive impressions of target saliency and also shows small variance. The findings confirm earlier studies by the inventor of the method and suggest that this could be a valuable tool for the visual literacy community.