Hi everyone, My name is Abhinandan Jain and I’ll be presenting our work towards a model for designing interaction beyond conscious control.
The work we have been doing explores the modulation of cognitive processes using non conscious body based input, using wearable devices.
Our goal is to build computer-to-human interfaces that allow us to control cognitive processes such as...
...our emotions or biases or empathy, which usually shape our perception but are outside our conscious control.
And since our cognitive capacities are limited, how to make sure that these interfaces do not demand...
...explicit attentional resources and utilize our limited cognitive capacities.
We present a framework, two example projects and highlight design and ethical considerations towards building such devices.
A major challenge in designing HCI technologies is that they largely focus on the conscious pathway for interactions..
..by which I mean, the information flows from our sensory modalities and utilizes some or all part of our the limited working memory capacity,
demand attention or break task engagement For eg. an Interface that gives vibration feedback for correcting wrong posture..
..or our daily interaction with cell phones.
As part of our work we aim to identify alternate channels to convey information to the mind using body based input.
We aim to go beyond the dichotomy of conscious-unconscious processing models and create interfaces that can...
...alter emotion, cognition or behavior without demands on attentional resources.
Building upon psychology research, we propose five level model of awareness that distinguishes processes based...
on their potential to become part of user’s consciousness and their load of user’s cognitive capacities.
Going from left to right, a stimuli through the Subliminal channel is totally hidden to user's perception - eg a user’s glucose level.
In Preconscious, attention is required to perceive the stimuli e.g the clothes you are wearing, which were not part of your conscious experience but they become if you pay attention to them.
In conscious channel, the active task such as you listening to this presentation is part of your conscious experience.
In metacognitive channel, the stimuli is about the reflection of thoughts in your mind. eg. thinking about thinking.
Through metasomatic channel, the stimuli is the reflection on pattern of body sensation with a higher cognitive meaning...
...like stretch of cheek muscles gives interpretation of happy emotion to the mind.
And we can classify examples of phenomenons in cognitive sciences and prior HCI work that fall in individual categories.
Please refer to our paper for a detailed classification.
Within this framework we present two example devices to showcase use of non conscious body based input to influence cognitive processes.
MoveU is a platform that provides haptic feedback using galvanic vestibular stimulation to manipulate user’s sense of motion in the mind.
The device passes a small amount of electrical current and modulates proprioception...
...which is naturally a preconscious processes, which means that attention is required to perceive the stimuli.
The project aims to mitigate cybersickness and increase user presence in a VR environment without breaking flow.
Frisson is a device for inducing the sensation and emotion of an aesthetic chill.
Aesthetic chills are shivers that go down the spine when a person experiences touching art or hears good music.
The device uses localized and spatially distributed thermal feedback to induce the embodied emotion of aesthetic chill.
Mind’s reflection on these pattern of bodily sensations generate similar downstream effects as with a natural chill, ...
without demanding user’s explicit attention and hence places this technology in a metasomatic process.
Please refer to our paper for a detailed description and result of these devices.
The lessons learned during the iterative design process and the user studies of both these devices aid in developing design and ethical considerations...
...that can be used by HCI researchers in development of future devices that influence the mind.
A few insights that are important to discuss are the ethical implications that arise while building such devices which we highlight here.
Working at levels of consciousness which are in the fovea of attention means subjects have a limited capacity to discriminate between options, ...
...and perhaps a higher degree of suggestibility. As we build such tools for influencing the mind, we must understand how to inform users...
that such devices may influence them outside their conscious awareness. To do this, we must design devices which are programmed by the user, for the user.
Users also need to know which mental process is being targeted and what effects they could expect to feel.
We envision with all of these considerations that the user voluntarily chooses to use the functionality and...
...is involved in setting preferences and choices in the setup phase of the interaction.
Concluding this presentation, we showcased that novel interface technologies can be designed in ways that are not demanding of explicit user attention.
The five-levels of awareness provide the backbone for a design framework of technologies that use the body as an interface to the mind for influencing affect, cognition or behavior.
Finally, we provide a set of design and ethical considerations that can be used to guide the development of body-to-mind interfaces.
Thank You.