Purring Wheel: Thermal and Vibrotactile Notifications on the Steering Wheel

Di Campli San Vito, P., Brewster, S. , Pollick, F. , Thompson, S., Skrypchuk, L. and Mouzakitis, A. (2020) Purring Wheel: Thermal and Vibrotactile Notifications on the Steering Wheel. In: 22nd ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, Online Only, 25-29 Oct 2020, pp. 461-469. ISBN 9781450375818 (doi: 10.1145/3382507.3418825)

Abstract

Haptic feedback can improve safety and driving behaviour. While vibration has been widely studied, other haptic modalities have been neglected. To address this, we present two studies investigating the use of uni- and bimodal vibrotactile and thermal cues on the steering wheel. First, notifications with three levels of urgency were subjectively rated and then identified during simulated driving. Bimodal feedback showed an increased identification time over unimodal vibrotactile cues. Thermal feedback was consistently rated less urgent, showing its suitability for less time critical notifications, where vibration would be unnecessarily attention-grabbing. The second study investigated more complex thermal and bimodal haptic notifications comprised of two different types of information (Nature and Importance of incoming message). Results showed that both modalities could be identified with high recognition rates of up to 92% for both and up to 99% for a single type, opening up a novel design space for haptic in-car feedback.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: This research was supported by an EPSRC iCASE Award and Jaguar Land Rover (EP/P510506/1).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Pollick, Professor Frank and Di Campli San Vito, Dr Patrizia and Brewster, Professor Stephen
• Authors: Di Campli San Vito, P., Brewster, S., Pollick, F., Thompson, S., Skrypchuk, L., and Mouzakitis, A.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science; College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
• ISBN: 9781450375818
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher