Haptic Interface for Vehicular Touch Screens

2013PDFTech ReportDriver distractionDriving simulatorsHighway safetyHuman factorsEye locationInstrument panelsTactile perceptionVisual perceptionVisual display units (Computers)Research HubVisual perceptionHuman factorsEye locationUnited StatesNorthwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation TechnologyColgate, J. EdwardPeshkin, Michael A.Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation TechnologyUnited States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology AdministrationNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Highway SafetyNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Human FactorsNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Vehicle DesignUS Transportation CollectionOnce the domain of purely physical controls such as knobs, levers, buttons, and sliders, the vehicle dash is rapidly transforming into a computer interface. This presents a challenge for drivers, because the physics-based cues which make traditional controls easy to operate with limited visual confirmation are absent on traditional screens. We investigate the addition of programmable physics-based cues to a visual display as a method to reduce eyes-off-road time. A TPaD variable friction touchpad was installed in the Ford VIRTTEX motion driving simulator. Subjects performed target acquisition and slider adjustment tasks under visual, visual/haptic, and haptic feedback conditions. For the two tasks, we found that the visual/haptic condition resulted in 39% and 19% decreases in total eyes-off-road time per task while showing negligible differences in task performance. Subjects showed a clear preference for combined visual and haptic feedback