Evaluation of Attention Guidance through Visual Subthreshold Stimulus with Consideration of Stimulus Intensity

In recent years, the demand for virtual reality has been increasing due to the expansion of the virtual reality market, but because of the high degree of freedom, there is a possibility that the direction of attention may be dispersed. This study evaluates the attention inducing effect of a visual subthreshold stimulus inserted with brief darkening as a masking stimulus that does not impair the sense of immersion. We hypothesize that the location, duration, and size of the stimulus, as well as the contrast ratio of the brightness between the stimulus and masked stimulus, are factors that contribute to the cognition of the stimulus and aim to investigate effective attention guidance through a visual subthreshold stimulus. We use the reaction time of a visual search task and the presence absence of cognition of the stimulus to evaluate the attention guidance effect and analyze the factors for stimulus cognition. Experiment’s results demonstrate that the visual subthreshold stimulus induces gaze. In addition, the stimulus presentation time, contrast ratio of the brightness between the stimulus and masked stimulus, and the size of the stimulus have significant effect on stimulus cognition.