A comparison of two contemporary types of in-car multifunctional interfaces

Do automation and digitalization distract drivers? A systematic review

Driving is a multifaceted activity involving a complex interplay of cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills, demanding continuous attention on the road. In recent years, the increased integration of automation and digitalization technologies in vehicles has improved drivers' convenience and safety. However, the spare attentional capacity available during automation and the prevalence of various infotainment systems in vehicles enable drivers to perform some secondary tasks not related to driving, which may divert their attention away from the road, increasing the chances of accidents. The objective of the present study is to conduct a comprehensive systematic review of existing literature utilizing an eye tracker to analyze driver distraction due to automation and/or digitalization in motorized vehicles, with a focus on identifying the key factors leading to visual distraction. Through a literature search on five databases: Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science, a total of 4769 articles were initially identified. After a systematic screening, 65 research articles are considered for the review. The findings of the study indicate an increase in the research conducted on driver distraction due to automation and/or digitalization over recent years, with the highest contribution of studies from the United States and China. The lack of studies from other parts of the world like South America, Africa and the limited representation from larger parts of Asia, specifically India, highlights the need for future research in the area. Studies report a diversion in drivers' visual attention away from the roadway, in terms of long and frequent off-road glances, while engaging in secondary tasks during automation and/or digitalization. Studies also demonstrate changes in the pattern of drivers' visual attention with respect to different factors like HMI information, type of secondary task, type of input modality, in-vehicle display characteristics, and vehicle automation. Studies have also found success in using feedback to reduce visual distraction and to bring back drivers' attention on the roads. In light of the findings observed, the review provides a discussion on the effects of automation and/or digitalization technologies on drivers' visual attention. The study also highlights the areas that are not explored despite the wealth of research available on the topic.

The research of touch screen usability in civil aircraft cockpit

With the advancement of touch screen technology, the application of touch screens in civil aircraft cockpits has become increasingly popular. However, further analysis and research are required to fully promote its applications. The paper researched the usability of touch screens in aircraft cockpit considering the operation performance and subjective NASA-TLX workload evaluation, conducted experimental research on three touch gestures: click, drag, and zoom. Additionally, a comparative analysis was conducted on the touch performance under different layouts, positions, touch sizes, dragging direction angles, and zoom multiples. The touch performance indicators include operation time, error rate, operation speed, and workload. The experimental results show that the 21 mm size has the minimum operation time and workload, and 18 mm size has the lowest error rate in the clicking tasks. Additionally, the performance and workload of the captain's layout are better than those of the co-pilot's layout, and the performance of the center console position is best. The operation speed of the dragging tasks is faster when performed at position R3 compared to other positions. The dragging moving angles with better operation speed are 80°-190° and 250°-290°. The operation performance and workload of the zooming tasks vary depending on the zoom multiples. As the multiple increases, the operation time and workload also increase. There is no difference in operation performance or workload between zooming in and zooming out. The paper provides experimental support and suggestions based on human operation and subjective NASA-TLX workload evaluation for the application of touch screens in civil aircraft cockpits.

Address inputting while driving: a comparison of four alternative text input methods on in-vehicle navigation displays usability and driver distraction

OBJECTIVE

Efficient and safe address entry is crucial to in-vehicle navigation systems. Although various text input methods (TIMs) are commercially available, to date, the details of the driver's interactions with these TIMs in the vehicle are poorly understood. Therefore, the effect of four alternative TIMs conditions on in-vehicle navigation displays usability and driver distraction were directly compared. For reference, the baseline driving task (distraction-free) was also investigated.

METHODS

A city expressway simulator experiment including 25 young drivers was launched. Under each condition, the driving task was lane-keeping with speed ranging between 40 and 60 km/h, and the navigation task was to enter a 14-characters Chinese address name. In the meantime, usability (text entry time, number of errors, and preference) and driver distraction (NASA-TLX, average speed, the standard deviation of lane position, total glance duration, number of glances, average glance duration, and number of glances exceeding 1.6 s) metrics were measured as dependent variables. A sequence of one-way repeated measure analyses of variance (ANOVA) was performed to examine which type of TIMs can maximize in-vehicle navigation displays usability and minimize driver distraction.

RESULTS

Generally, lateral driving performance deteriorated with the addition of the address inputting task, and the four alternative TIMs might fall into three levels: Speech is optimal, Qwerty followed, Shape-writing and Handwriting ranked last. Specifically, word-based speech remains performed best on all observed metrics for Chinese address names. There was an insignificant difference in text entry time and total glance duration among Qwerty, Shape-writing, and Handwriting. However, Shape-writing and Handwriting are not suitable for young drivers since the nature of uninterruptible causes excessive errors, more considerable lane position variation, longer average glance duration, and more glances exceeding 1.6 s.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides valuable insights into young drivers' interactions with four alternative TIMs. Importantly, it is beneficial to the automotive user interfaces design of in-vehicle navigation displays and other sub-functions of in-vehicle information systems (IVISs), such as music playback and text messaging, which positively mitigate driver distraction and prevent traffic injuries.

Dynamic is optimal: Effect of three alternative auto-complete on the usability of in-vehicle dialing displays and driver distraction

OBJECTIVE

Auto-complete (AC) has become ubiquitous on domain-specific systems and is mainly divided into two types (static-AC and dynamic-AC). Specifically, static-AC only presents the possible completions not changing with user input in the suggestion list for users to select. Dynamic-AC constantly filters out inconsistent content with user input and shows the possible completions at the top of the suggestion list. However, the details of the driver's interactions with AC in the vehicle are poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated the effect of three alternative AC (non-AC, static-AC, and dynamic-AC) on the usability of in-vehicle dialing displays and driver distraction. As a reference, the baseline task (only driving) was also surveyed in each AC condition.

METHODS

A simulated driving experiment consisting of 24 participants was conducted. The primary task was a lane-keeping task with speed ranging between 60 and 120 km/h over the stretch. The secondary task was dialing an 11-digit phone number. Usability metrics (task completion time and number of errors) and driver distraction metrics (NASA-reduced task load index (NASA-RTLX), mean speed, lateral position variation, total glance time, number of glances, mean glance time, and number of glances over 1.6 s) in each condition were measured. A series of one-way repeated measure analyses of variance was used to examine whether and which type of AC can maximize the usability of in-vehicle dialing displays and minimize driver distraction.

RESULTS

Generally, the AC-based in-vehicle dialing display gains a more positive effect. Specifically, we observed that among the three alternative AC conditions, dynamic-AC performed optimally on usability metrics similar to previous studies and various driver distraction metrics, notwithstanding it is still not up to the level of the baseline condition. However, static-AC did not exhibit the advantages described in previous studies except for fewer errors and NASA-RTLX owing to the possibility of position bias and boundary effect.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides valuable insights into drivers' interactions with AC-based in-vehicle dialing displays and broadened its applications in safety-critical situations. More importantly, it informs the design of a more effective in-vehicle system, which positively contributes to mitigating driver distraction and preventing traffic accidents.

Employing Emerging Technologies to Develop and Evaluate In-Vehicle Intelligent Systems for Driver Support: Infotainment AR HUD Case Study

The plurality of current infotainment devices within the in-vehicle space produces an unprecedented volume of incoming data that overwhelm the typical driver, leading to higher collision probability. This work presents an investigation to an alternative option which aims to manage the incoming information while offering an uncluttered and timely manner of presenting and interacting with the incoming data safely. The latter is achieved through the use of an augmented reality (AR) head-up display (HUD) system, which projects the information within the driver’s field of view. An uncluttered gesture recognition interface provides the interaction with the AR visuals. For the assessment of the system’s effectiveness, we developed a full-scale virtual reality driving simulator which immerses the drivers in challenging, collision-prone, scenarios. The scenarios unfold within a digital twin model of the surrounding motorways of the city of Glasgow. The proposed system was evaluated in contrast to a typical head-down display (HDD) interface system by 30 users, showing promising results that are discussed in detail.

Effects of visual complexity of in-vehicle information display: Age-related differences in visual search task in the driving context

We aimed to investigate the effects of the visual complexity of in-vehicle information display and driver's age in a driving context. A driving simulator study was conducted where participants performed visual search tasks at different visual complexity levels while driving. Two groups were included, 20 younger drivers (mean age = 28.75 years) and 14 older drivers (mean age = 54.87 years). Older drivers were found to be more vulnerable to the effects of increased visual complexity when performing a visual search task. The task completion time of the younger group increased by about 20% (from 7.69 s to 9.30 s), while the older group increased by about 47% (from 8.92 s to 13.14 s). Further, the driving performance of the older group deteriorated, unlike the younger group. The subjective workload score supported the results of the objective performance measures. These differences can be explained by glance behavior. The total off-road glance duration of older drivers was longer than that of younger drivers, but the average off-road glance duration of younger drivers was longer. In other words, older drivers have a more conservative strategy when dealing with increased visual complexity in a driving context so as not to affect their driving. The findings of this study show that the visual complexity level has a significant effect on driving behaviors, especially in older drivers, which provides insights for designing in-vehicle information displays.

Touchscreen interfaces in context: A systematic review of research into touchscreens across settings, populations, and implementations

Although many studies have been conducted on the human factors and ergonomics (HFE) of touchscreens, no comprehensive review has summarized the findings of these studies. Based on a schema (three dimensions of understanding critical for successful display selection) presented by Wickens et al. (2004), we identified three dimensions of analysis for touchscreen implementations: touchscreen technology, setting and environment of implementation, and user population. We conducted a systematic review based on the PRISMA protocol (Moher et al., 2009), searching five article databases for relevant quantitative literature on touchscreens. We found that all three dimensions of analysis have a significant effect on the HFE of touchscreens, and that a selection for or against touchscreens must take into consideration the specific context of system interaction in order to maximize safety, performance, and user satisfaction. Our report concludes with a set of specific recommendations for systems designers considering touchscreens as input/output devices, and suggestions for future study into the HFE of touchscreens.

Driving while using a smartphone-based mobility application: Evaluating the impact of three multi-choice user interfaces on visual-manual distraction

Innovative in-car applications provided on smartphones can deliver real-time alternative mobility choices and subsequently generate visual-manual demand. Prior studies have found that multi-touch gestures such as kinetic scrolling are problematic in this respect. In this study we evaluate three prototype tasks which can be found in common mobile interaction use-cases. In a repeated-measures design, 29 participants interacted with the prototypes in a car-following task within a driving simulator environment. Task completion, driving performance and eye gaze have been analysed. We found that the slider widget used in the filtering task was too demanding and led to poor performance, while kinetic scrolling generated a comparable amount of visual distraction despite it requiring a lower degree of finger pointing accuracy. We discuss how to improve continuous list browsing in a dual-task context.

Sonification of in-vehicle interface reduces gaze movements under dual-task condition

In-car infotainment systems (ICIS) often degrade driving performances since they divert the driver's gaze from the driving scene. Sonification of hierarchical menus (such as those found in most ICIS) is examined in this paper as one possible solution to reduce gaze movements towards the visual display. In a dual-task experiment in the laboratory, 46 participants were requested to prioritize a primary task (a continuous target detection task) and to simultaneously navigate in a realistic mock-up of an ICIS, either sonified or not. Results indicated that sonification significantly increased the time spent looking at the primary task, and significantly decreased the number and the duration of gaze saccades towards the ICIS. In other words, the sonified ICIS could be used nearly exclusively by ear. On the other hand, the reaction times in the primary task were increased in both silent and sonified conditions. This study suggests that sonification of secondary tasks while driving could improve the driver's visual attention of the driving scene.

Evaluation of the safety and usability of touch gestures in operating in-vehicle information systems with visual occlusion

Nowadays, many automobile manufacturers are interested in applying the touch gestures that are used in smart phones to operate their in-vehicle information systems (IVISs). In this study, an experiment was performed to verify the applicability of touch gestures in the operation of IVISs from the viewpoints of both driving safety and usability. In the experiment, two devices were used: one was the Apple iPad, with which various touch gestures such as flicking, panning, and pinching were enabled; the other was the SK EnNavi, which only allowed tapping touch gestures. The participants performed the touch operations using the two devices under visually occluded situations, which is a well-known technique for estimating load of visual attention while driving. In scrolling through a list, the flicking gestures required more time than the tapping gestures. Interestingly, both the flicking and simple tapping gestures required slightly higher visual attention. In moving a map, the average time taken per operation and the visual attention load required for the panning gestures did not differ from those of the simple tapping gestures that are used in existing car navigation systems. In zooming in/out of a map, the average time taken per pinching gesture was similar to that of the tapping gesture but required higher visual attention. Moreover, pinching gestures at a display angle of 75° required that the participants severely bend their wrists. Because the display angles of many car navigation systems tends to be more than 75°, pinching gestures can cause severe fatigue on users' wrists. Furthermore, contrary to participants' evaluation of other gestures, several participants answered that the pinching gesture was not necessary when operating IVISs. It was found that the panning gesture is the only touch gesture that can be used without negative consequences when operating IVISs while driving. The flicking gesture is likely to be used if the screen moving speed is slower or if the car is in heavy traffic. However, the pinching gesture is not an appropriate method of operating IVISs while driving in the various scenarios examined in this study.

Driver distraction and performance effects of highway logo sign design

Driver distraction and safety concerns have been identified for new highway logo sign configurations. This study assessed driver perception of logo signs and distraction under nine-panel, overflow-combination, or standard six-panel formats. A nine-panel sign has nine business panels within a single sign; a six-panel sign has six panels within a sign; an overflow-combination consists of a standard six-panel sign and a six-panel sign displaying two different services (e.g., food and gas). In this study, twenty-four participants searched for target food business logos while driving in a high-fidelity driving simulation under each signage condition. Gas and lodging signs were also displayed along the road in conventional six-panel formats. Dependent variables included signal detection, visual attention allocation, and vehicle control measures. Experiment results showed nine-panel signs drew greater visual attention and produced lower average speed than overflow-combination signs, and produced a lower speeding percentage compared to six-panel signs. However, there was no evidence the new configurations (nine-panel and overflow) caused substantive performance changes with safety implications. This study suggested the use of nine-panel and overflow-combination logo signs may be suitable for interchanges where there are more than six qualifying businesses in a category in terms of driver performance and safety.

To twist, roll, stroke or poke? A study of input devices for menu navigation in the cockpit

Modern interfaces within the aircraft cockpit integrate many flight management system (FMS) functions into a single system. The success of a user's interaction with an interface depends upon the optimisation between the input device, tasks and environment within which the system is used. In this study, four input devices were evaluated using a range of Human Factors methods, in order to assess aspects of usability including task interaction times, error rates, workload, subjective usability and physical discomfort. The performance of the four input devices was compared using a holistic approach and the findings showed that no single input device produced consistently high performance scores across all of the variables evaluated. The touch screen produced the highest number of 'best' scores; however, discomfort ratings for this device were high, suggesting that it is not an ideal solution as both physical and cognitive aspects of performance must be accounted for in design.

PRACTITIONER SUMMARY

This study evaluated four input devices for control of a screen-based flight management system. A holistic approach was used to evaluate both cognitive and physical performance. Performance varied across the dependent variables and between the devices; however, the touch screen produced the largest number of 'best' scores.

Can Haptics Facilitate Interaction with an In-Vehicle Multifunctional Interface?

A driving simulator study was conducted to investigate whether interaction with an in-vehicle multifunctional interface maneuvered by a rotary control can be improved if assisting haptics is provided. Two conditions were compared in the study, one in which neutral haptics was provided through the rotary control and another in which enhanced haptics was provided. Participants drove on a curved rural road while performing tasks such as list scrolling, radio tuning, address and number entry, and sound settings adjustments. When enhanced haptics was provided, the radio tuning was faster and fewer glances to the display were required, and the sound settings adjustments were completed with a reduced duration of the glances. However, improvements are needed for the other tasks. Enhanced haptics seems to facilitate interaction with functions in which the sensations can be incorporated in an intuitive way.