Age- and Gender-Related Studies on Senses of Perception for Human-Vehicle-Interaction

Abstract

Excess workload in vehicle control and inappropriateness of the common two interaction modalities vision (due to dazzling sunlight or chang- ing lighting conditions) and sound (affected by background noise or superpo- sition of voice from cell phone calls or conversations with passengers) requires to consider ways and means for new interaction capabilities in vehicles. We have investigated haptic force displays for transmitting feedback from vehic- ular services to the driving person with vibro-tactile elements, integrated into the car seat and backrest. A haptic display would be implicit perceivable, is passive in its attentiveness, and displays private messages (this means, that it is impossible for other persons to receive these informations). Empirical studies regarding reaction times for the different modalities vi- sion, sound, and touch, as well as age- and gender-dependent evaluations have been conducted, with the aim to identify general conditions for a all-purpose vehicle interaction system and to justify the usage of haptic feedback. Exper- imental data have been acquired in a simulated driving environment in order to guarantee safety for test persons, repeatability of the experiment itself, and similar conditions for each test run.