Beyond alerting: Informative tactile, auditory, and multisensory warning signals for safer driving

2009年，仅在英国就有超过26，000人在驾驶事故中死亡或严重受伤。在大多数情况下，“驾驶员错误/反应”被认为是最重要的促成因素。近年来，人们对驾驶员辅助系统的开发非常感兴趣，特别是当碰撞即将发生时向驾驶员提供信号的碰撞警告。这些系统有可能提供一种低成本的解决方案，以减少英国和世界各地与驾驶事故相关的大量生命损失、严重伤害和财务成本。拟议研究的目标是开发通过触觉和听觉传递的信息警告信号。信息性警告信号的优点在于，它们可以用于将驾驶员的注意力转移到潜在碰撞的位置，并提供关于碰撞事件的一些有用信息，例如紧急程度。此外，可修改信息性警告信号以在危险道路状况（例如，雪或冰）。在拟议的工作中，将通过开发一系列信号来创建信息性触觉和听觉警告，其中信号的物理特性（即，其强度、大小和/或位置）将作为预期碰撞时间和危险方向的函数而改变。这些信号将使用一系列基本注意力/反应时间实验进行评估，并在这些早期研究中确定最佳信号，然后在驾驶模拟器中进行研究。最终的信号设计将使用高保真驾驶模拟器和不同的驾驶员群体进行验证。希望这项研究将有助于提高驾驶安全性和扩大我们对触觉和听觉中动态信息的理解。

In 2009, more than 26,000 people were killed or seriously injured in driving accidents in the UK alone. "Driver error/reaction" was cited as the most important contributing factor in the majority of cases. In recent years, there has been a great deal of interest in the development of driver assistance systems, in particular collision warnings which present a signal to the driver when a collision is imminent. These systems hold the potential of presenting a low-cost solution to reducing the substantial loss of life, serious injuries, and financial costs associated with driving accidents in the UK and worldwide. The goal of the proposed research is to develop informative warnings signals delivered through the senses of touch and audition. Informative warning signals have the advantage that they can be used to both shift a driver's attention to the location of the potential collision and provide some useful information about the collision event such as the level of urgency. Furthermore, informative warnings signals can be modified to alert drivers earlier in dangerous road conditions (e.g., snow or ice). In the proposed work, informative tactile and auditory warnings will be created by developing a series of signals for which the physical characteristics of the signal (i.e., its intensity, size, and/or position) will change as a function of the anticipated time to collision, and direction of danger. These signals will be evaluated using a series of basic attention/reaction time experiments and the best signals identified in these early studies followed up by studies conducted in a driving simulator. The final signal designs will be validated using a high-fidelity driving simulator and a diverse population of drivers. It is hoped that this research will help to both improve driving safety and expand our understanding of dynamic information in the senses of touch and audition.