The Memory Glasses: Subliminal vs. Overt Memory Support with Imperfect Information

  • Authors:
  • Richard W. DeVaul;Alex "Sandy" Pentland;Vicka R. Corey

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-;-

  • Venue:
  • ISWC '03 Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Wearables are frequently designed to support users engagedin complex "real world" activities, ranging from foodinspection to ground combat. Unfortunately, wearablesalso have the potential to interfere with the very tasks theyare designed to support, either by distracting the user orproviding them with misleading information.In 2002 we published a pilot study suggesting that asubliminal visual cuing system might be an effective low-attentioninteraction strategy for just-in-time memory support.In this paper we present the results of a larger studydemonstrating that not only is wearable subliminal cuingsignificantly effective (increasing performance by a factorof approximately 1.5, p = 0.02), but even incorrect subliminalcues can actually improve performance. By contrast,consciously-visible incorrect cues caused performance todegrade.