The cockpit for the 21st century

Interactive surfaces are a growing trend in many domains. As one possible manifestation of Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous and disappearing computers in everywhere objects, we see touchsensitive screens in many kinds of devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers and interactive tabletops. More advanced concepts of these have been an active research topic for many years. This has also influenced automotive cockpit development: concept cars and recent market releases show integrated touchscreens, growing in size. To meet the increasing information and interaction needs, interactive surfaces offer context-dependent functionality in combination with a direct input paradigm. However, interfaces in the car need to be operable while driving. Distraction, especially visual distraction from the driving task, can lead to critical situations if the sum of attentional demand emerging from both primary and secondary task overextends the available resources. So far, a touchscreen requires a lot of visual attention since its flat surface does not provide any haptic feedback. There have been approaches to make direct touch interaction accessible while driving for simple tasks. Outside the automotive domain, for example in office environments, concepts for sophisticated handling of large displays have already been introduced. Moreover, technological advances lead to new characteristics for interactive surfaces by enabling arbitrary surface shapes. In cars, two main characteristics for upcoming interactive surfaces are largeness and shape. On the one hand, spatial extension is not only increasing through larger displays, but also by taking objects in the surrounding into account for interaction. On the other hand, the flatness inherent in current screens can be overcome by upcoming technologies, and interactive surfaces can therefore provide haptically distinguishable surfaces. This thesis describes the systematic exploration of large and shaped interactive surfaces and analyzes their potential for interaction while driving. Therefore, different prototypes for each characteristic have been developed and evaluated in test settings suitable for their maturity level. Those prototypes were used to obtain subjective user feedback and objective data, to investigate effects on driving and glance behavior as well as usability and user experience. As a contribution, this thesis provides an analysis of the development of interactive surfaces in the car. Two characteristics, largeness and shape, are identified that can improve the interaction compared to conventional touchscreens. The presented studies show that large interactive surfaces can provide new and improved ways of interaction both in driver-only and driver-passenger situations. Furthermore, studies indicate a positive effect on visual distraction when additional static haptic feedback is provided by shaped interactive surfaces. Overall, various, non-exclusively applicable, interaction concepts prove the potential of interactive surfaces for the use in automotive cockpits, which is expected to be beneficial also in further environments where visual attention needs to be focused on additional tasks.Der Einsatz von interaktiven Oberflächen weitet sich mehr und mehr auf die unterschiedlichsten Lebensbereiche aus. Damit sind sie eine mögliche Ausprägung von Mark Weisers Vision der allgegenwärtigen Computer, die aus unserer direkten Wahrnehmung verschwinden. Bei einer Vielzahl von technischen Geräten des täglichen Lebens, wie Smartphones, Tablets oder interaktiven Tischen, sind berührungsempfindliche Oberflächen bereits heute in Benutzung. Schon seit vielen Jahren arbeiten Forscher an einer Weiterentwicklung der Technik, um ihre Vorteile auch in anderen Bereichen, wie beispielsweise der Interaktion zwischen Mensch und Automobil, nutzbar zu machen. Und das mit Erfolg: Interaktive Benutzeroberflächen werden mittlerweile serienmäßig in vielen Fahrzeugen eingesetzt. Der Einbau von immer größeren, in das Cockpit integrierten Touchscreens in Konzeptfahrzeuge zeigt, dass sich diese Entwicklung weiter in vollem Gange befindet. Interaktive Oberflächen ermöglichen das flexible Anzeigen von kontextsensitiven Inhalten und machen eine direkte Interaktion mit den Bildschirminhalten möglich. Auf diese Weise erfüllen sie die sich wandelnden Informations- und Interaktionsbedürfnisse in besonderem Maße. Beim Einsatz von Bedienschnittstellen im Fahrzeug ist die gefahrlose Benutzbarkeit während der Fahrt von besonderer Bedeutung. Insbesondere visuelle Ablenkung von der Fahraufgabe kann zu kritischen Situationen führen, wenn Primär- und Sekundäraufgaben mehr als die insgesamt verfügbare Aufmerksamkeit des Fahrers beanspruchen. Herkömmliche Touchscreens stellen dem Fahrer bisher lediglich eine flache Oberfläche bereit, die keinerlei haptische Rückmeldung bietet, weshalb deren Bedienung besonders viel visuelle Aufmerksamkeit erfordert. Verschiedene Ansätze ermöglichen dem Fahrer, direkte Touchinteraktion für einfache Aufgaben während der Fahrt zu nutzen. Außerhalb der Automobilindustrie, zum Beispiel für Büroarbeitsplätze, wurden bereits verschiedene Konzepte für eine komplexere Bedienung großer Bildschirme vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus führt der technologische Fortschritt zu neuen möglichen Ausprägungen interaktiver Oberflächen und erlaubt, diese beliebig zu formen. Für die nächste Generation von interaktiven Oberflächen im Fahrzeug wird vor allem an der Modifikation der Kategorien Größe und Form gearbeitet. Die Bedienschnittstelle wird nicht nur durch größere Bildschirme erweitert, sondern auch dadurch, dass Objekte wie Dekorleisten in die Interaktion einbezogen werden können. Andererseits heben aktuelle Technologieentwicklungen die Restriktion auf flache Oberflächen auf, so dass Touchscreens künftig ertastbare Strukturen aufweisen können. Diese Dissertation beschreibt die systematische Untersuchung großer und nicht-flacher interaktiver Oberflächen und analysiert ihr Potential für die Interaktion während der Fahrt. Dazu wurden für jede Charakteristik verschiedene Prototypen entwickelt und in Testumgebungen entsprechend ihres Reifegrads evaluiert. Auf diese Weise konnten subjektives Nutzerfeedback und objektive Daten erhoben, und die Effekte auf Fahr- und Blickverhalten sowie Nutzbarkeit untersucht werden. Diese Dissertation leistet den Beitrag einer Analyse der Entwicklung von interaktiven Oberflächen im Automobilbereich. Weiterhin werden die Aspekte Größe und Form untersucht, um mit ihrer Hilfe die Interaktion im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Touchscreens zu verbessern. Die durchgeführten Studien belegen, dass große Flächen neue und verbesserte Bedienmöglichkeiten bieten können. Außerdem zeigt sich ein positiver Effekt auf die visuelle Ablenkung, wenn zusätzliches statisches, haptisches Feedback durch nicht-flache Oberflächen bereitgestellt wird. Zusammenfassend zeigen verschiedene, untereinander kombinierbare Interaktionskonzepte das Potential interaktiver Oberflächen für den automotiven Einsatz. Zudem können die Ergebnisse auch in anderen Bereichen Anwendung finden, in denen visuelle Aufmerksamkeit für andere Aufgaben benötigt wird

Transducer Arrays over A²B Networks in Industrial and Automotive Applications: Clock Propagation Measurements

Advanced automotive applications like Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Individual Listening Zones (ILZ) require a high number of transducers (i.e., microphones, accelerometers, and loudspeakers) usually arranged as arrays. Transducer arrays are widely employed in several applications besides automotive field, such as teleconferencing systems, industrial and civil monitoring of noise and vibrations. Automotive Audio Bus ( A2B ) is an audio transport protocol that solves the latest requirements of automotive and industrial fields. A2B allows transporting up to 32 channels in a multi-node daisy chain network and guarantees synchronization and low deterministic latency. This paper aims to develop a clock propagation model of an A2B network composed by transducer arrays. This model will be useful to evaluate the impact of the bus on the array performance. Firstly, a theoretical description of the A2B protocol and jitter analysis is provided. It follows a description of the jitter measures carried out on the clocks distributed along the A2B network. Lastly, latency introduced by nodes of the network is investigated

A user experience‐based toolset for automotive human‐machine interface technology development

The development of new automotive Human-Machine Interface (HMI) technologies must consider the competing and often conflicting demands of commercial value, User Experience (UX) and safety. Technology innovation offers manufacturers the opportunity to gain commercial advantage in a competitive and crowded marketplace, leading to an increase in the features and functionality available to the driver. User response to technology influences the perception of the brand as a whole, so it is important that in-vehicle systems provide a high-quality user experience. However, introducing new technologies into the car can also increase accident risk. The demands of usability and UX must therefore be balanced against the requirement for driver safety. Adopting a technology-focused business strategy carries a degree of risk, as most innovations fail before they reach the market. Obtaining clear and relevant information on the UX and safety of new technologies early in their development can help to inform and support robust product development (PD) decision making, improving product outcomes. In order to achieve this, manufacturers need processes and tools to evaluate new technologies, providing customer-focused data to drive development. This work details the development of an Evaluation Toolset for automotive HMI technologies encompassing safety-related functional metrics and UX measures. The Toolset consists of four elements: an evaluation protocol, based on methods identified from the Human Factors, UX and Sensory Science literature; a fixed-base driving simulator providing a context-rich, configurable evaluation environment, supporting both hardware and software-based technologies; a standardised simulation scenario providing a repeatable basis for technology evaluations, allowing comparisons across multiple technologies and studies; and a technology scorecard that collates and presents evaluation data to support PD decision making processes

Automated and intelligent hacking detection system

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Informatics EngineeringThe Controller Area Network (CAN) is the backbone of automotive networking, connecting many Electronic ControlUnits (ECUs) that control virtually every vehicle function from fuel injection to parking sensors. It possesses,however, no security functionality such as message encryption or authentication by default. Attackers can easily inject or modify packets in the network, causing vehicle malfunction and endangering the driver and passengers. There is an increasing number of ECUs in modern vehicles, primarily driven by the consumer’s expectation of more features and comfort in their vehicles as well as ever-stricter government regulations on efficiency and emissions. Combined with vehicle connectivity to the exterior via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cellular, this raises the risk of attacks. Traditional networks, such as Internet Protocol (IP), typically have an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) analysing traffic and signalling when an attack occurs. The system here proposed is an adaptation of the traditional IDS into the CAN bus using a One Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM) trained with live, attack-free traffic. The system is capable of reliably detecting a variety of attacks, both known and unknown, without needing to understand payload syntax, which is largely proprietary and vehicle/model dependent. This allows it to be installed in any vehicle in a plug-and-play fashion while maintaining a large degree of accuracy with very few false positives.A Controller Area Network (CAN) é a principal tecnologia de comunicação interna automóvel, ligando muitas Electronic Control Units (ECUs) que controlam virtualmente todas as funções do veículo desde injeção de combustível até aos sensores de estacionamento. No entanto, não possui por defeito funcionalidades de segurança como cifragem ou autenticação. É possível aos atacantes facilmente injetarem ou modificarem pacotes na rede causando estragos e colocando em perigo tanto o condutor como os passageiros. Existe um número cada vez maior de ECUs nos veículos modernos, impulsionado principalmente pelas expectativas do consumidores quanto ao aumento do conforto nos seus veículos, e pelos cada vez mais exigentes regulamentos de eficiência e emissões. Isto, associada à conexão ao exterior através de tecnologias como o Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ou redes móveis, aumenta o risco de ataques. Redes tradicionais, como a rede Internet Protocol (IP), tipicamente possuem um Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) que analiza o tráfego e assinala a presença de um ataque. O sistema aqui proposto é uma adaptação do IDS tradicional à rede CAN utilizando uma One Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM) treinada com tráfego real e livre de ataques. O sistema é capaz de detetar com fiabilidade uma variedade de ataques, tanto conhecidos como desconhecidos, sem a necessidade de entender a sintaxe do campo de dados das mensagens, que é maioritariamente proprietária. Isto permite ao sistema ser instalado em qualquer veículo num modo plug-and-play enquanto mantém um elevado nível de desempenho com muito poucos falsos positivos

Time-sensitive autonomous architectures

Autonomous and software-defined vehicles (ASDVs) feature highly complex systems, coupling safety-critical and non-critical components such as infotainment. These systems require the highest connectivity, both inside the vehicle and with the outside world. An effective solution for network communication lies in Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) which enables high-bandwidth and low-latency communications in a mixed-criticality environment. In this work, we present Time-Sensitive Autonomous Architectures (TSAA) to enable TSN in ASDVs. The software architecture is based on a hypervisor providing strong isolation and virtual access to TSN for virtual machines (VMs). TSAA latest iteration includes an autonomous car controlled by two Xilinx accelerators and a multiport TSN switch. We discuss the engineering challenges and the performance evaluation of the project demonstrator. In addition, we propose a Proof-of-Concept design of virtualized TSN to enable multiple VMs executing on a single board taking advantage of the inherent guarantees offered by TSN

The cockpit for the 21st century

Interactive surfaces are a growing trend in many domains. As one possible manifestation of Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous and disappearing computers in everywhere objects, we see touchsensitive screens in many kinds of devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers and interactive tabletops. More advanced concepts of these have been an active research topic for many years. This has also influenced automotive cockpit development: concept cars and recent market releases show integrated touchscreens, growing in size. To meet the increasing information and interaction needs, interactive surfaces offer context-dependent functionality in combination with a direct input paradigm. However, interfaces in the car need to be operable while driving. Distraction, especially visual distraction from the driving task, can lead to critical situations if the sum of attentional demand emerging from both primary and secondary task overextends the available resources. So far, a touchscreen requires a lot of visual attention since its flat surface does not provide any haptic feedback. There have been approaches to make direct touch interaction accessible while driving for simple tasks. Outside the automotive domain, for example in office environments, concepts for sophisticated handling of large displays have already been introduced. Moreover, technological advances lead to new characteristics for interactive surfaces by enabling arbitrary surface shapes. In cars, two main characteristics for upcoming interactive surfaces are largeness and shape. On the one hand, spatial extension is not only increasing through larger displays, but also by taking objects in the surrounding into account for interaction. On the other hand, the flatness inherent in current screens can be overcome by upcoming technologies, and interactive surfaces can therefore provide haptically distinguishable surfaces. This thesis describes the systematic exploration of large and shaped interactive surfaces and analyzes their potential for interaction while driving. Therefore, different prototypes for each characteristic have been developed and evaluated in test settings suitable for their maturity level. Those prototypes were used to obtain subjective user feedback and objective data, to investigate effects on driving and glance behavior as well as usability and user experience. As a contribution, this thesis provides an analysis of the development of interactive surfaces in the car. Two characteristics, largeness and shape, are identified that can improve the interaction compared to conventional touchscreens. The presented studies show that large interactive surfaces can provide new and improved ways of interaction both in driver-only and driver-passenger situations. Furthermore, studies indicate a positive effect on visual distraction when additional static haptic feedback is provided by shaped interactive surfaces. Overall, various, non-exclusively applicable, interaction concepts prove the potential of interactive surfaces for the use in automotive cockpits, which is expected to be beneficial also in further environments where visual attention needs to be focused on additional tasks.Der Einsatz von interaktiven Oberflächen weitet sich mehr und mehr auf die unterschiedlichsten Lebensbereiche aus. Damit sind sie eine mögliche Ausprägung von Mark Weisers Vision der allgegenwärtigen Computer, die aus unserer direkten Wahrnehmung verschwinden. Bei einer Vielzahl von technischen Geräten des täglichen Lebens, wie Smartphones, Tablets oder interaktiven Tischen, sind berührungsempfindliche Oberflächen bereits heute in Benutzung. Schon seit vielen Jahren arbeiten Forscher an einer Weiterentwicklung der Technik, um ihre Vorteile auch in anderen Bereichen, wie beispielsweise der Interaktion zwischen Mensch und Automobil, nutzbar zu machen. Und das mit Erfolg: Interaktive Benutzeroberflächen werden mittlerweile serienmäßig in vielen Fahrzeugen eingesetzt. Der Einbau von immer größeren, in das Cockpit integrierten Touchscreens in Konzeptfahrzeuge zeigt, dass sich diese Entwicklung weiter in vollem Gange befindet. Interaktive Oberflächen ermöglichen das flexible Anzeigen von kontextsensitiven Inhalten und machen eine direkte Interaktion mit den Bildschirminhalten möglich. Auf diese Weise erfüllen sie die sich wandelnden Informations- und Interaktionsbedürfnisse in besonderem Maße. Beim Einsatz von Bedienschnittstellen im Fahrzeug ist die gefahrlose Benutzbarkeit während der Fahrt von besonderer Bedeutung. Insbesondere visuelle Ablenkung von der Fahraufgabe kann zu kritischen Situationen führen, wenn Primär- und Sekundäraufgaben mehr als die insgesamt verfügbare Aufmerksamkeit des Fahrers beanspruchen. Herkömmliche Touchscreens stellen dem Fahrer bisher lediglich eine flache Oberfläche bereit, die keinerlei haptische Rückmeldung bietet, weshalb deren Bedienung besonders viel visuelle Aufmerksamkeit erfordert. Verschiedene Ansätze ermöglichen dem Fahrer, direkte Touchinteraktion für einfache Aufgaben während der Fahrt zu nutzen. Außerhalb der Automobilindustrie, zum Beispiel für Büroarbeitsplätze, wurden bereits verschiedene Konzepte für eine komplexere Bedienung großer Bildschirme vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus führt der technologische Fortschritt zu neuen möglichen Ausprägungen interaktiver Oberflächen und erlaubt, diese beliebig zu formen. Für die nächste Generation von interaktiven Oberflächen im Fahrzeug wird vor allem an der Modifikation der Kategorien Größe und Form gearbeitet. Die Bedienschnittstelle wird nicht nur durch größere Bildschirme erweitert, sondern auch dadurch, dass Objekte wie Dekorleisten in die Interaktion einbezogen werden können. Andererseits heben aktuelle Technologieentwicklungen die Restriktion auf flache Oberflächen auf, so dass Touchscreens künftig ertastbare Strukturen aufweisen können. Diese Dissertation beschreibt die systematische Untersuchung großer und nicht-flacher interaktiver Oberflächen und analysiert ihr Potential für die Interaktion während der Fahrt. Dazu wurden für jede Charakteristik verschiedene Prototypen entwickelt und in Testumgebungen entsprechend ihres Reifegrads evaluiert. Auf diese Weise konnten subjektives Nutzerfeedback und objektive Daten erhoben, und die Effekte auf Fahr- und Blickverhalten sowie Nutzbarkeit untersucht werden. Diese Dissertation leistet den Beitrag einer Analyse der Entwicklung von interaktiven Oberflächen im Automobilbereich. Weiterhin werden die Aspekte Größe und Form untersucht, um mit ihrer Hilfe die Interaktion im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Touchscreens zu verbessern. Die durchgeführten Studien belegen, dass große Flächen neue und verbesserte Bedienmöglichkeiten bieten können. Außerdem zeigt sich ein positiver Effekt auf die visuelle Ablenkung, wenn zusätzliches statisches, haptisches Feedback durch nicht-flache Oberflächen bereitgestellt wird. Zusammenfassend zeigen verschiedene, untereinander kombinierbare Interaktionskonzepte das Potential interaktiver Oberflächen für den automotiven Einsatz. Zudem können die Ergebnisse auch in anderen Bereichen Anwendung finden, in denen visuelle Aufmerksamkeit für andere Aufgaben benötigt wird

Leveraging virtualization technologies for resource partitioning in mixed criticality systems

Multi- and many-core processors are becoming increasingly popular in embedded systems. Many of these processors now feature hardware virtualization capabilities, such as the ARM Cortex A15, and x86 processors with Intel VT-x or AMD-V support. Hardware virtualization offers opportunities to partition physical resources, including processor cores, memory and I/O devices amongst guest virtual machines. Mixed criticality systems and services can then co-exist on the same platform in separate virtual machines. However, traditional virtual machine systems are too expensive because of the costs of trapping into hypervisors to multiplex and manage machine physical resources on behalf of separate guests. For example, hypervisors are needed to schedule separate VMs on physical processor cores. Additionally, traditional hypervisors have memory footprints that are often too large for many embedded computing systems. This dissertation presents the design of the Quest-V separation kernel, which partitions services of different criticality levels across separate virtual machines, or sandboxes. Each sandbox encapsulates a subset of machine physical resources that it manages without requiring intervention of a hypervisor. In Quest-V, a hypervisor is not needed for normal operation, except to bootstrap the system and establish communication channels between sandboxes. This approach not only reduces the memory footprint of the most privileged protection domain, it removes it from the control path during normal system operation, thereby heightening security

The Application of Physiological Metrics in Validating User Experience Evaluation on Automotive Human Machine Interface Systems

Automotive in-vehicle information systems have seen an era of continuous development within the industry and are recognised as a key differentiator for prospective customers. This presents a significant challenge for designers and engineers in producing effective next generation systems which are helpful, novel, exciting, safe and easy to use. The usability of any new human machine interface (HMI) has an implicit cost in terms of the perceived aesthetic perception and associated user experience. Achieving the next engaging automotive interface, not only has to address the user requirements but also has to incorporate established safety standards whilst considering new interaction technologies. An automotive (HMI) evaluation may combine a triad of physiological, subjective and performance-based measurements which are employed to provide relevant and valuable data for product evaluation. However, there is also a growing interest and appreciation that determining real-time quantitative metrics to drivers’ affective responses provide valuable user affective feedback. The aim of this research was to explore to what extent physiological metrics such as heart rate variability could be used to quantify or validate subjective testing of automotive HMIs. This research employed both objective and subjective metrics to assess user engagement during interactions with an automotive infotainment system. The mapping of both physiological and self-report scales was examined over a series of studies in order to provide a greater understanding of users’ responses. By analysing the data collected it may provide guidance within the early stages of in-vehicle design evaluation in terms of usability and user satisfaction. This research explored these metrics as an objective, quantitative, diagnostic measure of affective response, in the assessment of HMIs. Development of a robust methodology was constructed for the application and understanding of these metrics. Findings from the three studies point towards the value of using a combination of methods when examining user interaction with an in-car HMI. For the next generation of interface systems, physiological measures, such as heart rate variability may offer an additional dimension of validity when examining the complexities of the driving task that drivers perform every day. There appears to be no boundaries on technology advancements and with this, comes extra pressure for car manufacturers to produce similar interactive and connective devices to those that are already in use in homes. A successful in-car HMI system will be intuitive to use, aesthetically pleasing and possess an element of pleasure however, the design components that are needed for a highly usable HMI have to be considered within the context of the constraints of the manufacturing process and the risks associated with interacting with an in-car HMI whilst driving. The findings from the studies conducted in this research are discussed in relation to the usability and benefits of incorporating physiological measures that can assist in our understanding of driver interaction with different automotive HMIs