Local danger warnings for drivers: the effect of modality and level of assistance on driver reaction

ABSTRACT

Local danger warning is an important function of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to improve the safety of driving. The user interface (the warning presentation) is particularly crucial to a successful danger avoidance. We present a user study investigating various warning presentations using a scenario of emergent road obstacles. Two presentation factors were selected: modality and level of assistance. The modality factor had 4 variants: speech warning, visual and speech warning, visual warning with blinking cue, and visual warning with sound cue. The level of assistance varied between with or without action suggestions (AS). In accordance with the ISO usability model, a total of 6 measurements were derived to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the warnings and the drivers' satisfaction. Results indicate that the combination of speech and visual modality leads to the best performance as well as the highest satisfaction. In contrast, purely auditory and purely visual modalities were both insufficient for presenting high-priority warnings. AS generally improved the usability of the warnings especially when they were accompanied by supporting information so that drivers could validate the suggestions.

References

1. ISO 9241: Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (vdts) - part 11: Guidance on usability, 1998.
2. Identify intelligent vehicle safety applications enabled by DSRC. Technical Report DOT-HS-809-859, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Springfield, Virginia, USA, March 2005.
3. N. Bernsen and L. Dybkjaer. Exploring natural interaction in the car. In CLASS Workshop on Natural Interactivity and Intelligent Interactive Information Representation, pages 75--79, 2001.
4. Y. Cao, S. Castronovo, A. Mahr, and C. Muller. On timing and modality choice with local danger warnings for drivers. In 1st International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutomotiveUI 2009), pages 75--78, 2009.
5. M. R. Endsley. Measurement of situation awareness in dynamic systems: Situation awareness. Human Factors, 37(1):65--84, 1995.
6. M. R. Endsley. Towards a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors, 37(1):32--64, 1995.
7. S. K. Feiner and K. R. McKeown. Automating the generation of coordinated multimedia explanations. IEEE Computer, 24:33--41, 1991.
8. D. M. Gavrila. Sensor-based pedestrian protection. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 16(6):77--81, 2001.
9. R. Graham. Use of auditory icons as emergency warnings: evaluation within a vehicle collision avoidance application. Ergonomics, 42(9):1233--1248, 1999.
10. M. Green. "How long does it take to stop? Methodological analysis of driver perception-brake times. Transportation Human Factors, 2(3):195--216, 2000.
11. A. Kassner. Meet the driver needs by matching assistance functions and task demands. In European Conf. on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems, pages 327--334, 2008.
12. C. Kaufmann, R. Risser, A. Geven, and R. Sefelin. Effects of simultaneous multi-modal warnings and traffic information on driver behaviour. In European Conf. on Human Centered Design for Intelligent Transport Systems, pages 33--42, 2008.
13. T. Kosch. Local danger warning based on vehicle ad-hoc networks: Prototype and simulation. In 1st International Workshop on Intelligent Transportation (WIT 2004), 2004.
14. J. D. Lee, B. F. Gore, and J. L. Campbell. Display alternatives for in-vehicle warning and sign information: message style, location and modality. Transportation Human Factors, 1(4):347--375, 1999.
15. Y. C. Liu. Comparative study of the effects of auditory, visual and multimodality displays on drivers performance in advanced traveller information systems. Ergonomics, 44(4):425--442, 2001.
16. N. H. Lurie and C. H. Mason. Visual representation: Implications for decision making. Journal of Marketing, 71:160--177, 2007.
17. D. C. Marshall, J. D. Lee, and P. A. Austria. Alerts for in-vehicle information systems: Annoyance, urgency, and appropriateness. Human Factors, 49(1):145--157, 2007.
18. A. Pauzie. Evaluating driver mental workload using the driving activity load index (DALI). In Proc. of European Conference on Human Interface Design for Intelligent Transport Systems, pages 67--77, 2008.
19. A. Pauzie and G. Pachiaudi. Subjective evaluation of the mental workload in the driving context. Traffic and Transport Psychology, pages 173--182, 1997.
20. N. Sarter. Multimodal information presentation: Design guidance and research challenges. International journal of industrial ergonomics, 36(5):439--445, 2006.
21. B. Seppelt and C. Wickens. In-vehicle tasks: Effects of modality, driving relevance, and redundancy. Technical Report AHFD-03-16/GM-03-2, GM Corp, 2003.
22. C. D. Wickens. Multiple resources and mental workload. Human Factors, 50(3):449, 2008.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Interaction design

    • Interaction design process and methods

      • User centered design