Benefits of Subliminal Feedback Loops in Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

A lot of efforts have been directed to enriching human-computer interaction to make the user experience more pleasing or efficient. In this paper, we briefly present work in the fields of subliminal perception and affective computing, before we outline a new approach to add analog communication channels to the human-computer interaction experience. In this approach, in addition to symbolic predefined mappings of input to output, a subliminal feedback loop is used that provides feedback in evolutionary subliminal steps. In two studies involving concentration-intensive games, we investigated the impact of this approach. In a first study evolutionary feedback loops adjusted the user interface of a memory game whereas in the second study the lighting of the test room was adjusted dynamically. The results show that in settings with an evolutionary feedback loop test participants were able to reach significantly higher scores compared to the static counterparts. Finally, we discuss the impact that such subliminally working applications might have on the user's acceptance.

Engineering Issues in Physiological Computing

“…Second, even if implicit actions can evoke changes, they may be difficult to both design and validate due to their unobtrusive nature. An example is the application of Ritter (2011), which aims to improve task performance by subtly changing the visual appearance of items on the screen. While improved performance is shown, the entire system is basically a 'black box' and it is very hard to determine just what factors led to improved performance.…”

Allostasis Machines: a model for understanding internal states and technological environments

“…There are many exciting opportunities to unify Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) concepts with Neuroscience. Some of these involve the implementation of brain-computer interfaces [1], which results in a number of intentional and unintentional feedback mechanisms [2]. Contrary to that approach, we propose that both the Neuro-HCI interdisciplinary relationship and the associated feedback mechanism is much richer: feedback mechanisms result in dynamic regulation, and can be understood as a relationship between the body, the internal model, and the environment.…”

“…University of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara Italy danielacialfi@gmail.com2 OpenWorm Foundation, Boston, MA USA1 Orthogonal Research and Education Laboratory, Champaign, IL USA bradly.alicea@outlook.com…”