Where to turn my car?: comparison of a tactile display and a conventional car navigation system under high load condition

Tactile displays are an actively studied means to convey large amount of spatial information in the car. Their advantage compared to conventional car navigation systems is their ability to free the driver's visual and auditory senses. Previously the tactile displays were integrated into the seat of a car to present multiple direction information to the driver. However, in the commercial cars the seat is used to provide the vibro-tactile warning signals, so driver might not differentiate between navigation and warning information. Furthermore, the amount of information presented with tactile displays can cause significant cognitive workload, performance degradation and distraction to the driver. In this paper, we explore different methods of encoding multiple directions information with a tactile belt in the car. We compare the vibro-tactile presentation of spatial turn-by-turn information with a conventional car navigation system to measure cognitive workload, performance and distraction of the driver. We found that drivers showed better orientation performance on the tactile display than with the conventional car navigation system. At the same time there was no difference in cognitive workload, performance, and distraction. Thus, a tactile interface can be useful to present more information than simple left or right directions in high load driving conditions in which drivers are required to observe the traffic situation with their visual and auditory senses.

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