The role of subliminal perception in vehicular interfaces

Following laws and provisions passed on the national and international level, the most relevant goal of future traffic and vehicular interfaces is to increase road safety. To alleviate the cognitive load associated with the interaction with the variety of emerging information and assistance systems in the car, subliminal stimulation is assumed to be a promising technique. To assess the potential of subliminal cues that could be used as their interaction means in future vehicles, we have organized a workshop within the frame of the automotive user interfaces conference (AutoUI 2011) to discuss this topic in a group of experts. This paper summarizes the findings from that workshop and should give researchers a starting point for their own activities in the field by indicating sort of grand research challenges and most critical issues. In particular, the goal of this summary article is to make this challenging research field more 'tangible' for researchers working in a range of disciplines, such as engineering, neuroscience, computer science, and psychophysiology. While currently discussed in the automotive domain only, the principles, research questions, and findings could immediately (and easily) be transferred to and adopted in other research fields. Interaction based on subliminal techniques can have an impact on society at large, making significant contributions toward a more natural, convenient, and even relaxing future style of interaction with any complex systems.