Haptic perception, attention, and effects on performance in a driving context use of a haptic rotary device in a menu selection task

Sammanfattning: In-vehicle driving interfaces have become increasingly complex with added secondary task functions designed to make driving enjoyable and comfortable. A single display solution in combination with a haptic rotary device has the potential to reduce the clutter of buttons. With well-designed haptic information (i.e., cues that could be explored by touch), drivers should be able to find and select functions without taking their eyes off the road. However, when this thesis work started, few studies focused on the effects of adding haptic information to secondary tasks in cars. Clearly, research is needed that examines how adding more information to secondary tasks supports or distracts drivers. This thesis investigates haptic perception, attention, and effects on secondary tasks and driving performance for an interaction menu selection interface controlled by an in-vehicle haptic rotary device. The research questions addressed how and why performance would be affected by added haptic information. The causes of selective attention in a visual and haptic menu selection task were also investigated. Three experimental studies complemented with interviews and questionnaires were performed. Two of the studies included a simulated driving task. It could be concluded that an addition of haptic information to a visual menu selection interface could increase secondary task performance and were preferred with respect to usability issues. However, more complex haptic additions could also confuse the driver. This result depends on the context and differed between persons. From a driving performance perspective, both visual and cognitive demand affected the driving, but differently. These effects were less pronounced when both visual and haptic information was provided. Selective attention to haptic information seemed to be an effect of lacking expectations. By simply mentioning the haptic information before the test, a driver would pay closer attention to the haptic information. This result implies that drivers might learn to usemore flexible and informative multimodal interfaces in the future if the interfaces emphasize and communicate the haptic cues. This implication would be interesting to study further. In addition, future studies may apply these results to more ecologically valid driving situations.