Comprehension of haptic seat displays for integrated driver warning systems. Paper presented at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 50th Annual Meeting

Twenty-two haptic seat collision warning patterns were evaluated in a non-driving context to identify a smaller set for subsequent testing in a driving context. Different patterns were intended to convey blind spot, lane drift, forward collision, and sharp-curve-ahead warnings. Fifty-four test participants experienced a single 2-3 second exposure to each warning pattern while performing a continuous distraction task in a simulator buck with a haptic cushion. The test participant was surrounded by seven static images of driving conditions, one for each warning. The test participant was asked to report his or her association of the experienced haptic pattern with one of the seven driving conditions. The test participant could also respond "I don't know. " The comprehension of several patterns was as good as or better than that recently reported for visual collision warning symbols (Campbell et. al., 2004). One pattern was found that might serve as an excellent 'general alert'. Some directionally similar patterns were found to degrade comprehension of patterns previously demonstrated to be well understood