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

Excess load and inappropriate usage of the common two interaction modalities vision (in driving situations with dazzling sunlight or changing conditions of illumination) and sound (notification signal superimposed by environmental noise, mobile phone calls or communication with passengers) requires to consider ways and means for new interaction capabilities in vehicles. We have investigated on haptic force displays for transmitting feedback from vehicular services to the driving person with vibro-tactile elements, integrated into cars seat and back. 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 vision, sound, and touch, as well as age- and gender-dependent evaluations have been performed, with the aim to identify general conditions for a all-purpose vehicle interaction system and justify the usage of haptic feedback. Experimental data have been acquired in a simulated driving environment, in order to guarantee safety for test persons, repeatability of the experiment itself and equality for any test run.