I know that Workrave's idle time-out is configurable in gconf, as document in this blog post:  http://tech.velmont.net/workrave-with-no-fake-microbreaks/  I've successfully modified Workrave's behavior by changing the Windows Registry.

It would be nice if this setting were also exposed in Workrave's GUI.

Workrave's default idle time-out is 5 seconds.  Very often I am sitting in front of my PC and not actively typing or using the mouse:  I'm mostly just reading, with infrequent mouse clicks and key presses.  With the default idle time-out, Workrave would count most of that time as idle time, delaying my breaks.  

A short idle time-out might make sense if the user's goal is to limit time spent typing and using the mouse before taking a break.  But my use of Workrave is intended to limit the time spent sitting in front of the PC before taking a break.  So for me a much longer idle time-out makes sense.

Reading mode is not a suitable alternative, because in reading mode it seems that the counters never stop - not even when I step away from my PC for an extended period.  Reading mode will prevent a natural break from counting, and means that Workrave may force a break shortly after returning from a natural break.  These problems don't happen with reading mode turned off:  if I step away from the computer for an extended period and return later, upon returning the counters restart at the beginning, forcing breaks at the appropriate times - but only if the idle time-out is adjusted to suit my usage pattern.

Created attachment 298
Windows registry settings: 60 second idle time-out

Attached is a Windows registry file that sets Workrave's idle time-out to 60 seconds, instead of the default 5 seconds.

I very much second this.

I am an IT person, often developing software. My job includes some coding, but also lots of analysis. I looked at the statistics after one week and couldn't believe how little activity Workrave counted.

I did an "experiment" while looking at the list of Workrave bugs. I stayed on the PC for 16 +- 1 minutes, without taking any break. The activity time measured by Workrave was between 8 and 9 minutes. This is extremely inaccurate, but I fear it is representative of Workrave's accuracy in measuring my activity with the default settings.

However, it is probably very difficult to find the right value (if such a thing exists). Although the following suggestion would require a lot more work than what this ticket is asking, it would surely be much better to adjust the time by trial and error. The basic idea is to ask the user whether the detection was accurate. Concretely, a pop-up can be shown when the user is considered idle, offering the user to correct Workrave if the user was not actually idle. If the user does that, Workrave should prolong the time-out. If not, the time-out should be shortened.

The downside is that the user needs to spend more time managing Workrave. To limit that, the pop-up should not be shown every idle detection. The more Workrave knows the user, the rarer verifications should become.

The time-out was configurable in the initial releases of Workrave. I think it was removed because people said it was too confusing. Settings the value to more than 30 seconds may interfere with some assumptions Workrave makes.

The reading mode has one big disadvantage: you have to turn it off when you stop reading. Otherwise Workrave will assume you continu reading on until the next restbreak is complete.

Perhaps I should add an extended idle time option, as an alternative for the reading mode. 

Other options: use webcan to detect if user is using the computer.

I changed the importance to 'enhancement'

I would love to get accurate idle detection, but using the webcam of course requires one and probably costs a lot of processing, even if we get the best detection algorithm.

One of my screen detects presence to turn off the screen as soon as no one is in front, but I doubt this information is transmitted to the computer.

+1

My work pattern includes a lot of googeling and short readings.
If I set up the daily limit to 8 hours, I have to work about 11 hours to get through with. Same with breaks.
This behavior sucks and I wish there was an easy way to change it.