I'm working on an article about video search for Wired magazine, and I just had a very interesting conversation with Rajeev Sharma, the CEO of VideoMining, about exactly how long an attention span really is. His company makes software that monitors people's movements through retail spaces, looking at what catches people's attention and where they get stuck in lines. Hundreds of surveillance cameras follow your every move through a store, and then their software analyzes the movements you've made. VideoMining's latest product measures how long people stare at multimedia ads on flat screen TVs in 7-11 and places like that.
"How long, exactly, does somebody have to look at something for it to constitute paying attention to it?" I asked.
"Oh about 2 to 3 seconds," Sharma said. "Or sometimes just 1 second."
So there you have it, folks. Look at something for a second, and you're officially paying attention to it. Somehow, that makes me feel better.
Videomining [company website]
