A dynamic flexible and interactive display method of digital photographs

•We propose a method (D-FLIP) to dynamically and flexibly display photos.•We present examples behaviours of photos with the proposed algorithm.•The proposed algorithm can support albums with a reasonably large number of photos.•D-FLIP requires less task engagement and mental efforts to support storytelling.•Our EEG evaluation method can be used to evaluate other interactive applications.

We propose D-FLIP (Dynamic & Flexible Interactive PhotoShow), a novel algorithm that dynamically displays digital photos using different organizing principles. Various requirements for photo arrangements can be flexibly replaced or added through the interaction and the results are continuously and dynamically displayed. D-FLIP uses an approach based on combinatorial optimization and emergent computation, where geometric parameters such as location, size, and photo angle are considered to be functions of time; dynamically determined by local relationships among adjacent photos at every time instance. As a consequence, the global layout of all photos is automatically varied. We first present examples of photograph behaviors that demonstrate the algorithm and then investigate users’ task engagement using EEG in the context of story preparation and telling. The result shows that D-FLIP requires less task engagement and mental efforts in order to support storytelling.