Hint-hint, wink-wink
If two communication partners already share knowledge, only very little information needs to be sent in order to communicate a greater idea.
Background
The act of winking, a simple means of eye communication, can be used to convey a variety of meanings, depending on the context in which it is used; furthermore, the recipient needs to have an idea about what the sender was intending to communicate.
For example, both communication partners might have agreed on a trick in advance, so the wink might symbolize the beginning of the trick. For a computer, such a trick could be a macro - a recorded series of keyboard and/or mouse events.
Concept
Using eye-wink in human-computer interaction offers two ways of usage, depending on the recipient: winking at the computer and winking to a human, through the computer. In this application example, users were enabled to try out both.
Implementation and user test
The first application in this example was a chat window, in which the users could generate "wink" smileys by winking.
The second application was an operating-system wide 'record' mode that allowed the users to wink once to start recording (teach a trick) and wink again to let their computer do what they just taught it.
Summary of findings
Creating smileys by winking was happily accepted by most test users. The most popular applications for the mini-macros offered were hiding windows (such as to hide Solitaire, when one's boss would enter the office) and bringing windows back to the front (as when having many applications open and needing a specific window frequently).
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Most users found it to be a funny application, and enjoyed usage especially in the chat context. Teaching the computer a 'trick' was accepted as well, but the application was not in a final state, yet. To make a final conclusion here, more investigation is necessary.
