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Media that utilizes a combination of different content forms is defined by Wikipedia as Multimedia. Historically, the term has developed analogous to the development of computer technology. As long as computer users had to deal with teletypes or even punchcards for input and with printouts on brindled continuous paper for output, computer technology was "no-media". Even at later evolution stages when DOS users hacked cryptic code lines into their keyboards, computing (at least in the DOS world, others were already more advanced) was a no-media technology. Only when PC manufacturers started to equip these grey boxes with sound cards and graphical display, the world (seen through the computer perspective) began to turn multi-media. The evolution was fast and fierce, and today we are surrounded by the ubiquitous output of 7.1 sound equipment and HD displays.
There is no relief to this situation of continuous stimulus satiation, even in the car. Quite the contrary, for the driver, the virtual stimulus from the electronic environment adds to the real-world stimulus near-satiation in today's hectic traffic.
Prudent car designers know this. They have realized that drivers quite often get into situations when the physiological channels for hearing and vision simply hit the limits of their bandwidth. They concluded that in certain traffic situations, mostly to be characterized as 'critical' they have no chance to get through to our brains with their message, no matter how urgent it might be. This was the moment, when "haptic" feedback was invented, be it as a lane departure warning signal (shaking the drivers' seat) or as an emergency signal in the case the distance to the man in front gets too close (by counterpressure in the accelerator pedal). So today's driving population gets vibrated, pressed against the foot, fed with acoustical and visual stimuli, all in real-time and windshield-wide cinemascope.
This is really multimedia, isn't it?. But wait, there are still some unused channels to the driver's mind! Couldn't our sense of smell, sense of taste and sense of temperature also be used to send more information to our brains? How about to use these idle fields for commercials? There is still a long way to go until the universe of multimedia possibilities will eventually hit the wall. Designers, go to work!
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