On-Road Evaluation of In-vehicle Interface Characteristics and Their Effects on Performance of Visual Detection on the Road and Manual Entry

Abstract

Objective:

This study investigated the impact of in-vehicle interface characteristics on drivers’ multitasking performance measures relating to visual attention management, concerning the distraction potential of in-vehicle touchscreens.

Background:

Compared with physical controls providing drivers with naturalistic nonvisual cues, in-vehicle touchscreen interaction relies on vision to a greater extent, leading to more time with eyes off the road and concerns for safety. Little is known from existing research about the extent to which synthetic feedback of in-vehicle touchscreens support visual attention of multitasking drivers, while automakers are increasingly incorporating nondriving functions into in-vehicle touchscreens.

Method:

Twenty-nine participants drove an instrumented vehicle on a closed course and acknowledged visual probes obscured on the roadside, while performing a manual data entry task with input interfaces mounted on the center console. The interfaces differed by interface type, key feedback modality, and key size; the configuration of interface characteristics was the within-subject variable. The collected data include performance measures concerning visual detection and touchscreen interaction, in addition to perceived workload.

Results:

The addition of nonvisual feedback to touchscreen interaction significantly improved accuracy and promptness of visual detection. No significant difference was found between different sizes of touchscreen keys when synthetic nonvisual feedback was available. Given multisensory feedback, no measure showed a difference between touchscreen conditions and a physical keypad.

Conclusion:

The provision of synthetic nonvisual feedback to touchscreen interaction can support visual attention and enhance multitasking performance in driving.

Application:

This study can inform in-vehicle interface designers and policy makers concerned with distracted driving and safety.

Keywords

driver attention management in-vehicle touchscreen multisensory feedback multitask performance

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brignall

(2016, May 2). Is the Tesla 3 the electric car that will change everything? The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/may/07/tesla-3-electric-car-affordable-worth-price.

Crundall

Underwood

Chapman

(1999). Driving experience and the functional field of view. Perception, 28(9), 1075–1087.

Crundall

Underwood

Chapman

(2002). Attending to the peripheral world while driving. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16(4), 459–475.

Fitch

G. M.

Soccolich

S. A.

Guo

McClafferty

Fang

Olson

R. L.

Perez

M. A.

Hanowski

R. J.

Hankey

J. M.

Dingus

T. A.

(2013). The impact of hand-held and hands-free cell phone use on driving performance and safety-critical event risk. DOT HS 811757, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Hart

S. G.

Staveland

L. E.

(1988). Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. Advances in Psychology, 52, 139–183.

Harwell

M. R.

Rubinstein

E. N.

Hayes

W. S.

Olds

C. C.

(1992). Summarizing Monte Carlo results in methodological research: The one-and two-factor fixed effects ANOVA cases. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 17(4), 315–339.

Hyman

I. E.

Boss

S. M.

Wise

B. M.

McKenzie

K. E.

Caggiano

J. M.

(2010). Did you see the unicycling clown? Inattentional blindness while walking and talking on a cell phone. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(5), 597–607.

Irwin

C. B.

Yen

T. Y.

Meyer

R. H.

Vanderheiden

G. C.

Kelso

D. P.

Sesto

M. E.

(2011). Use of force plate instrumentation to assess kinetic variables during touch screen use. Universal Access in the Information Society, 10, 453–460.

Jones

D. G.

Endsley

M. R.

(2004). Use of real-time probes for measuring situation awareness. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 14(4), 343–367.

10.

Kim

Kwon

Heo

Lee

Chung

M. K.

(2014). The effect of touch-key size on the usability of In-Vehicle Information Systems and driving safety during simulated driving. Applied Ergonomics, 45(3), 379–388.

11.

Kujala

(2013). Browsing the information highway while driving: Three in-vehicle touch screen scrolling methods and driver distraction. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 17(5), 815-823.

12.

Kujala

Salvucci

D. D.

(2015). Modeling visual sampling on in-car displays: The challenge of predicting safety-critical lapses of control. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 79, 66–78.

13.

Lee

J. D.

Roberts

S. C.

Hoffman

J. D.

Angell

L. S.

(2012). Scrolling and driving: How an MP3 player and its aftermarket controller affect driving performance and visual behavior. Human Factors, 54(2), 250–263.

14.

Lee

J.-H.

Spence

(2008). Assessing the benefits of multimodal feedback on dual-task performance under demanding conditions. Proceedings of the 22nd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Culture, Creativity, Interaction, 1, 185–192.

15.

Liang

Lee

J. D.

Yekhshatyan

(2012). How dangerous is looking away from the road? Algorithms predict crash risk from glance patterns in naturalistic driving. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 54(6), 1104–1116.

16.

Lix

L. M.

Keselman

J. C.

Keselman

H. J.

(1996). Consequences of assumption violations revisited: A quantitative review of alternatives to the one-way analysis of variance F test. Review of Educational Research, 66(4), 579–619.

17.

Nasar

J. L.

Troyer

(2013). Pedestrian injuries due to mobile phone use in public places. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 57, 91–95.

18.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2014). Visual-manual NHTSA driver distraction guidelines for in-vehicle electronic devices, Federal Register, 78(81), 55530–55534.

19.

Olson

R. L.

Hanowski

R. J.

Hickman

J. S.

Bocanegra

(2009). Driver distraction in commercial vehicle operations. Report No. FMCSA-RRR-09-042. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

20.

Orphanides

A. K.

Nam

C. S.

(2017). Touchscreen interfaces in context: A systematic review of research into touchscreens across settings, populations, and implementations. Applied Ergonomics, 61, 116–143.

21.

Park

Y. S.

Han

S. H.

(2010). Touch key design for one-handed thumb interaction with a mobile phone: Effects of touch key size and touch key location. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 40, 68–76.

22.

Petzoldt

Bellem

Krems

J. F.

(2014). The critical tracking task: A potentially useful method to assess driver distraction? Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 56(4), 789–808.

23.

Pitts

M. J.

Burnett

G. E.

Williams

M. A.

Wellings

(2010, November). Does haptic feedback change the way we view touchscreens in cars? 12^th International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces and the Workshop on Machine Learning for Multimodal Interaction, 38. Beijing

24.

Pitts

M. J.

Burnett

Skrypchuk

Wellings

Attridge

Williams

M. A.

(2012). Visual–haptic feedback interaction in automotive touchscreens. Displays, 33(1), 7–16.

25.

Pitts

M. J.

Skrypchuk

Wellings

Attridge

Williams

M. A.

(2012). Evaluating user response to in-vehicle haptic feedback touchscreens using the lane change test. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction 2012, 1–13.

26.

Ranney

T. A.

Harbluk

J. L.

Noy

Y. I.

(2005). Effects of voice technology on test track driving performance: Implications for driver distraction. Human Factors, 47(2), 439–454.

27.

Reimer

Mehler

Donmez

(2014). A study of young adults examining phone dialing while driving using a touchscreen vs. a key style flip-phone. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 23, 57–68.

28.

Walker

G. H.

Stanton

N. A.

Young

M. S.

(2008). Feedback and driver situation awareness (SA): A comparison of SA measures and contexts. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 11(4), 282–299.

29.

West

S. G.

Finch

J. F.

Curran

P. J.

(1995). Structural equation models with nonnormal variables: Problems and remedies. In Hoyle

R. H.

(Ed.), Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues and applications (pp. 56–75). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

30.

Wickens

C. D.

(2002). Multiple resources and performance prediction. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 3(2): 159–177.

31.

Wickens

C. D.

(2008). Multiple resources and mental workload. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50(3), 449–455.

32.

Wickens

C. D.

Gordon

S. E.

Liu

Lee

(1998). An introduction to human factors engineering. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.