Gesturing on the steering wheel, a comparison with speech and touch interaction modalities

This paper compares an emergent interaction modality for the In-Vehicle Infotainment System (IVIS), i.e., gesturing on the steering wheel, with two more popular modalities in modern cars: touch and speech. We conducted a betweensubjects experiment with 20 participants for each modality to assess the interaction performance with the IVIS and the impact on the driving performance. Moreover, we compared the three modalities in terms of usability, subjective workload and emotional response. The results showed no statically significant differences between the three interaction modalities regarding the various indicators for the driving task performance, while significant differences were found in measures of IVIS interaction performance: users performed less interactions to complete the secondary tasks with the speech modality, while, in average, a lower task completion time was registered with the touch modality. The three interfaces were comparable in all the subjective metrics

A Voice and Pointing Gesture Interaction System for Supporting Human Spontaneous Decisions in Autonomous Cars

Autonomous cars are expected to improve road safety, traffic and mobility. It is projected that in the next 20-30 years fully autonomous vehicles will be on the market. The advancement on the research and development of this technology will allow the disengagement of humans from the driving task, which will be responsibility of the vehicle intelligence. In this scenario new vehicle interior designs are proposed, enabling more flexible human vehicle interactions inside them. In addition, as some important stakeholders propose, control elements such as the steering wheel and accelerator and brake pedals may not be needed any longer. However, this user control disengagement is one of the main issues related with the user acceptance of this technology. Users do not seem to be comfortable with the idea of giving all the decision power to the vehicle. In addition, there can be location awareness situations where the user makes a spontaneous decision and requires some type of vehicle control. Such is the case of stopping at a particular point of interest or taking a detour in the pre-calculated autonomous route of the car. Vehicle manufacturers\u27 maintain the steering wheel as a control element, allowing the driver to take over the vehicle if needed or wanted. This causes a constraint in the previously mentioned human vehicle interaction flexibility. Thus, there is an unsolved dilemma between providing users enough control over the autonomous vehicle and route so they can make spontaneous decision, and interaction flexibility inside the car. This dissertation proposes the use of a voice and pointing gesture human vehicle interaction system to solve this dilemma. Voice and pointing gestures have been identified as natural interaction techniques to guide and command mobile robots, potentially providing the needed user control over the car. On the other hand, they can be executed anywhere inside the vehicle, enabling interaction flexibility. The objective of this dissertation is to provide a strategy to support this system. For this, a method based on pointing rays intersections for the computation of the point of interest (POI) that the user is pointing to is developed. Simulation results show that this POI computation method outperforms the traditional ray-casting based by 76.5% in cluttered environments and 36.25% in combined cluttered and non-cluttered scenarios. The whole system is developed and demonstrated using a robotics simulator framework. The simulations show how voice and pointing commands performed by the user update the predefined autonomous path, based on the recognized command semantics. In addition, a dialog feedback strategy is proposed to solve conflicting situations such as ambiguity in the POI identification. This additional step is able to solve all the previously mentioned POI computation inaccuracies. In addition, it allows the user to confirm, correct or reject the performed commands in case the system misunderstands them

Context-aware gestural interaction in the smart environments of the ubiquitous computing era

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyTechnology is becoming pervasive and the current interfaces are not adequate for the interaction with the smart environments of the ubiquitous computing era. Recently, researchers have started to address this issue introducing the concept of natural user interface, which is mainly based on gestural interactions. Many issues are still open in this emerging domain and, in particular, there is a lack of common guidelines for coherent implementation of gestural interfaces. This research investigates gestural interactions between humans and smart environments. It proposes a novel framework for the high-level organization of the context information. The framework is conceived to provide the support for a novel approach using functional gestures to reduce the gesture ambiguity and the number of gestures in taxonomies and improve the usability. In order to validate this framework, a proof-of-concept has been developed. A prototype has been developed by implementing a novel method for the view-invariant recognition of deictic and dynamic gestures. Tests have been conducted to assess the gesture recognition accuracy and the usability of the interfaces developed following the proposed framework. The results show that the method provides optimal gesture recognition from very different view-points whilst the usability tests have yielded high scores. Further investigation on the context information has been performed tackling the problem of user status. It is intended as human activity and a technique based on an innovative application of electromyography is proposed. The tests show that the proposed technique has achieved good activity recognition accuracy. The context is treated also as system status. In ubiquitous computing, the system can adopt different paradigms: wearable, environmental and pervasive. A novel paradigm, called synergistic paradigm, is presented combining the advantages of the wearable and environmental paradigms. Moreover, it augments the interaction possibilities of the user and ensures better gesture recognition accuracy than with the other paradigms

Experience Prototyping for Automotive Applications

In recent years, we started to define our life through experiences we make instead of objectswe buy. To attend a concert of our favorite musician may be more important for us thanowning an expensive stereo system. Similarly, we define interactive systems not only by thequality of the display or its usability, but rather by the experiences we can make when usingthe device. A cell phone is primarily built for making calls and receiving text messages,but on an emotional level it might provide a way to be close to our loved ones, even thoughthey are far away sometimes. When designing interactive technology, we do not only haveto answer the question how people use our systems, but also why they use them. Thus,we need to concentrate on experiences, feelings and emotions arising during interaction.Experience Design is an approach focusing on the story that a product communicates beforeimplementing the system. In an interdisciplinary team of psychologists, industrial designers, product developers andspecialists in human-computer interaction, we applied an Experience Design process to theautomotive domain. A major challenge for car manufacturers is the preservation of theseexperiences throughout the development process. When implementing interactive systemsengineers rely on technical requirements and a set of constraints (e.g., safety) oftentimescontradicting aspects of the designed experience. To resolve this conflict, Experience Prototypingis an important tool translating experience stories to an actual interactive product. With this thesis I investigate the Experience Design process focusing on Experience Prototyping.Within the automotive context, I report on three case studies implementing threekinds of interactive systems, forming and following our approach. I implemented (1) anelectric vehicle information system called Heartbeat, communicating the state of the electricdrive and the batteries to the driver in an unobtrusive and ensuring way. I integrated Heartbeatinto the dashboard of a car mock-up with respect to safety and space requirements butat the same time holding on to the story in order to achieve a consistent experience. With (2)the Periscope I implemented a mobile navigation device enhancing the social and relatednessexperiences of the passengers in the car. I built and evaluated several experience prototypesin different stages of the design process and showed that they transported the designed experiencethroughout the implementation of the system. Focusing on (3) the experience offreehand gestures, GestShare explored this interaction style for in-car and car-to-car socialexperiences. We designed and implemented a gestural prototypes for small but effectivesocial interactions between drivers and evaluated the system in the lab and and in-situ study. The contributions of this thesis are (1) a definition of Experience Prototyping in the automotivedomain resulting from a literature review and my own work, showing the importanceand feasibility of Experience Prototyping for Experience Design. I (2) contribute three casestudies and describe the details of several prototypes as milestones on the way from a anexperience story to an interactive system. I (3) derive best practices for Experience Prototypingconcerning their characteristics such as fidelity, resolution and interactivity as well asthe evaluation in the lab an in situ in different stages of the process.Wir definieren unser Leben zunehmend durch Dinge, die wir erleben und weniger durchProdukte, die wir kaufen. Ein Konzert unseres Lieblingsmusikers zu besuchen kann dabeiwichtiger sein, als eine teure Stereoanlage zu besitzen. Auch interaktive Systeme bewertenwir nicht mehr nur nach der Qualität des Displays oder der Benutzerfreundlichkeit, sondernauch nach Erlebnissen, die durch die Benutzung möglich werden. Das Smartphone wurdehauptsächlich zum Telefonieren und Schreiben von Nachrichten entwickelt. Auf einer emotionalenEbene bietet es uns aber auch eine Möglichkeit, wichtigen Personen sehr nah zusein, auch wenn sie manchmal weit weg sind. Bei der Entwicklung interaktiver Systememüssen wir uns daher nicht nur fragen wie, sondern auch warum diese benutzt werden. Erlebnisse,Gefühle und Emotionen, die während der Interaktion entstehen, spielen dabei einewichtige Rolle. Experience Design ist eine Disziplin, die sich auf Geschichten konzentriert,die ein Produkt erzählt, bevor es tatsächlich implementiert wird. In einem interdisziplinären Team aus Psychologen, Industrie-Designern, Produktentwicklernund Spezialisten der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion wurde ein Prozess zur Erlebnis-Gestaltung im automobilen Kontext angewandt. Die Beibehaltung von Erlebnissen über dengesamten Entwicklungsprozess hinweg ist eine große Herausforderung für Automobilhersteller.Ingenieure hängen bei der Implementierung interaktiver Systeme von technischen,sicherheitsrelevanten und ergonomischen Anforderungen ab, die oftmals dem gestaltetenErlebnis widersprechen. Die Bereitstellung von Erlebnis-Prototypen ermöglicht die Übersetzungvon Geschichten in interaktive Produkte und wirkt daher diesem Konflikt entgegen. Im Rahmen dieser Dissertation untersuche ich den Prozess zur Erlebnis-Gestaltung hinsichtlichder Bedeutung von Erlebnis-Prototypen. Ich berichte von drei Fallbeispielen im automobilenBereich, die die Gestaltung und Implementierung verschiedener interaktiver Systemenumfassen. (1) Ein Informationssystem für Elektrofahrzeuge, der Heartbeat, macht den Zustanddes elektrischen Antriebs und den Ladestand der Batterien für den Fahrer visuell undhaptisch erlebbar. Nach der Implementierung mehrerer Prototypen wurde Heartbeat unterBerücksichtigung verschiedener technischer und sicherheitsrelevanter Anforderungen in dieArmaturen eines Fahrzeugmodells integriert, ohne dass dabei das gestaltete Erlebnis verlorengegangen ist. (2) Das Periscope ist ein mobiles Navigationsgerät, das den Insassensoziale Erlebnisse ermöglicht und das Verbundenheitsgefühl stärkt. Durch die Implementierungmehrere Erlebnis-Prototypen und deren Evaluation in verschiedenen Phasen des Entwicklungsprozesseskonnten die gestalteten Erlebnisse konsistent erhalten werden. (3) ImProjekt GestShare wurde das Potential der Interaktion durch Freiraumgesten im Fahrzeuguntersucht. Dabei standen ein Verbundenheitserlebnis des Fahrers und soziale Interaktionenmit Fahrern anderer Fahrzeuge im Fokus. Es wurden mehrere Prototypen implementiert undauch in einer Verkehrssituation evaluiert. Die wichtigsten Beiträge dieser Dissertation sind (1) eine intensive Betrachtung und Anwendungvon Erlebnis-Prototypen im Auto und deren Relevanz bei der Erlebnis-Gestaltung,beruhend auf einer Literaturauswertung und der eigenen Erfahrung innerhalb des Projekts; (2) drei Fallstudien und eine detaillierte Beschreibung mehrere Prototypen in verschiedenenPhasen des Prozesses und (3) Empfehlungen zu Vorgehensweisen bei der Erstellung vonErlebnis-Prototypen hinsichtlich der Eigenschaften wie Nähe zum finalen Produkt, Anzahlder implementierten Details und Interaktivität sowie zur Evaluation im Labor und in tatsächlichenVerkehrssituationen in verschiedenen Phasen des Entwicklungsprozesses

A Framework For Abstracting, Designing And Building Tangible Gesture Interactive Systems

This thesis discusses tangible gesture interaction, a novel paradigm for interacting with computer that blends concepts from the more popular fields of tangible interaction and gesture interaction. Taking advantage of the human innate abilities to manipulate physical objects and to communicate through gestures, tangible gesture interaction is particularly interesting for interacting in smart environments, bringing the interaction with computer beyond the screen, back to the real world. Since tangible gesture interaction is a relatively new field of research, this thesis presents a conceptual framework that aims at supporting future work in this field. The Tangible Gesture Interaction Framework provides support on three levels. First, it helps reflecting from a theoretical point of view on the different types of tangible gestures that can be designed, physically, through a taxonomy based on three components (move, hold and touch) and additional attributes, and semantically, through a taxonomy of the semantic constructs that can be used to associate meaning to tangible gestures. Second, it helps conceiving new tangible gesture interactive systems and designing new interactions based on gestures with objects, through dedicated guidelines for tangible gesture definition and common practices for different application domains. Third, it helps building new tangible gesture interactive systems supporting the choice between four different technological approaches (embedded and embodied, wearable, environmental or hybrid) and providing general guidance for the different approaches. As an application of this framework, this thesis presents also seven tangible gesture interactive systems for three different application domains, i.e., interacting with the In-Vehicle Infotainment System (IVIS) of the car, the emotional and interpersonal communication, and the interaction in a smart home. For the first application domain, four different systems that use gestures on the steering wheel as interaction means with the IVIS have been designed, developed and evaluated. For the second application domain, an anthropomorphic lamp able to recognize gestures that humans typically perform for interpersonal communication has been conceived and developed. A second system, based on smart t-shirts, recognizes when two people hug and reward the gesture with an exchange of digital information. Finally, a smart watch for recognizing gestures performed with objects held in the hand in the context of the smart home has been investigated. The analysis of existing systems found in literature and of the system developed during this thesis shows that the framework has a good descriptive and evaluative power. The applications developed during this thesis show that the proposed framework has also a good generative power.Questa tesi discute l’interazione gestuale tangibile, un nuovo paradigma per interagire con il computer che unisce i principi dei più comuni campi di studio dell’interazione tangibile e dell’interazione gestuale. Sfruttando le abilità innate dell’uomo di manipolare oggetti fisici e di comunicare con i gesti, l’interazione gestuale tangibile si rivela particolarmente interessante per interagire negli ambienti intelligenti, riportando l’attenzione sul nostro mondo reale, al di là dello schermo dei computer o degli smartphone. Poiché l’interazione gestuale tangibile è un campo di studio relativamente recente, questa tesi presenta un framework (quadro teorico) che ha lo scopo di assistere lavori futuri in questo campo. Il Framework per l’Interazione Gestuale Tangibile fornisce supporto su tre livelli. Per prima cosa, aiuta a riflettere da un punto di vista teorico sui diversi tipi di gesti tangibili che possono essere eseguiti fisicamente, grazie a una tassonomia basata su tre componenti (muovere, tenere, toccare) e attributi addizionali, e che possono essere concepiti semanticamente, grazie a una tassonomia di tutti i costrutti semantici che permettono di associare dei significati ai gesti tangibili. In secondo luogo, il framework proposto aiuta a concepire nuovi sistemi interattivi basati su gesti tangibili e a ideare nuove interazioni basate su gesti con gli oggetti, attraverso linee guida per la definizione di gesti tangibili e una selezione delle migliore pratiche per i differenti campi di applicazione. Infine, il framework aiuta a implementare nuovi sistemi interattivi basati su gesti tangibili, permettendo di scegliere tra quattro differenti approcci tecnologici (incarnato e integrato negli oggetti, indossabile, distribuito nell’ambiente, o ibrido) e fornendo una guida generale per la scelta tra questi differenti approcci. Come applicazione di questo framework, questa tesi presenta anche sette sistemi interattivi basati su gesti tangibili, realizzati per tre differenti campi di applicazione: l’interazione con i sistemi di infotainment degli autoveicoli, la comunicazione interpersonale delle emozioni, e l’interazione nella casa intelligente. Per il primo campo di applicazione, sono stati progettati, sviluppati e testati quattro differenti sistemi che usano gesti tangibili effettuati sul volante come modalità di interazione con il sistema di infotainment. Per il secondo campo di applicazione, è stata concepita e sviluppata una lampada antropomorfica in grado di riconoscere i gesti tipici dell’interazione interpersonale. Per lo stesso campo di applicazione, un secondo sistema, basato su una maglietta intelligente, riconosce quando due persone si abbracciano e ricompensa questo gesto con uno scambio di informazioni digitali. Infine, per l’interazione nella casa intelligente, è stata investigata la realizzazione di uno smart watch per il riconoscimento di gesti eseguiti con oggetti tenuti nella mano. L’analisi dei sistemi interattivi esistenti basati su gesti tangibili permette di dimostrare che il framework ha un buon potere descrittivo e valutativo. Le applicazioni sviluppate durante la tesi mostrano che il framework proposto ha anche un valido potere generativo

PRESTK : situation-aware presentation of messages and infotainment content for drivers

The amount of in-car information systems has dramatically increased over the last few years. These potentially mutually independent information systems presenting information to the driver increase the risk of driver distraction. In a first step, orchestrating these information systems using techniques from scheduling and presentation planning avoid conflicts when competing for scarce resources such as screen space. In a second step, the cognitive capacity of the driver as another scarce resource has to be considered. For the first step, an algorithm fulfilling the requirements of this situation is presented and evaluated. For the second step, I define the concept of System Situation Awareness (SSA) as an extension of Endsley’s Situation Awareness (SA) model. I claim that not only the driver needs to know what is happening in his environment, but also the system, e.g., the car. In order to achieve SSA, two paths of research have to be followed: (1) Assessment of cognitive load of the driver in an unobtrusive way. I propose to estimate this value using a model based on environmental data. (2) Developing model of cognitive complexity induced by messages presented by the system. Three experiments support the claims I make in my conceptual contribution to this field. A prototypical implementation of the situation-aware presentation management toolkit PRESTK is presented and shown in two demonstrators.In den letzten Jahren hat die Menge der informationsanzeigenden Systeme im Auto drastisch zugenommen. Da sie potenziell unabhängig voneinander ablaufen, erhöhen sie die Gefahr, die Aufmerksamkeit des Fahrers abzulenken. Konflikte entstehen, wenn zwei oder mehr Systeme zeitgleich auf limitierte Ressourcen wie z. B. den Bildschirmplatz zugreifen. Ein erster Schritt, diese Konflikte zu vermeiden, ist die Orchestrierung dieser Systeme mittels Techniken aus dem Bereich Scheduling und Präsentationsplanung. In einem zweiten Schritt sollte die kognitive Kapazität des Fahrers als ebenfalls limitierte Ressource berücksichtigt werden. Der Algorithmus, den ich zu Schritt 1 vorstelle und evaluiere, erfüllt alle diese Anforderungen. Zu Schritt 2 definiere ich das Konzept System Situation Awareness (SSA), basierend auf Endsley’s Konzept der Situation Awareness (SA). Dadurch wird erreicht, dass nicht nur der Fahrer sich seiner Umgebung bewusst ist, sondern auch das System (d.h. das Auto). Zu diesem Zweck m¨ussen zwei Bereiche untersucht werden: (1) Die kognitive Belastbarkeit des Fahrers unaufdringlich ermitteln. Dazu schlage ich ein Modell vor, das auf Umgebungsinformationen basiert. (2) Ein weiteres Modell soll die Komplexität der präsentierten Informationen bestimmen. Drei Experimente stützen die Behauptungen in meinem konzeptuellen Beitrag. Ein Prototyp des situationsbewussten Präsentationsmanagement-Toolkits PresTK wird vorgestellt und in zwei Demonstratoren gezeigt

Automotive user interfaces for the support of non-driving-related activities

Driving a car has changed a lot since the first car was invented. Today, drivers do not only maneuver the car to their destination but also perform a multitude of additional activities in the car. This includes for instance activities related to assistive functions that are meant to increase driving safety and reduce the driver’s workload. However, since drivers spend a considerable amount of time in the car, they often want to perform non-driving-related activities as well. In particular, these activities are related to entertainment, communication, and productivity. The driver’s need for such activities has vastly increased, particularly due to the success of smart phones and other mobile devices. As long as the driver is in charge of performing the actual driving task, such activities can distract the driver and may result in severe accidents. Due to these special requirements of the driving environment, the driver ideally performs such activities by using appropriately designed in-vehicle systems. The challenge for such systems is to enable flexible and easily usable non-driving-related activities while maintaining and increasing driving safety at the same time. The main contribution of this thesis is a set of guidelines and exemplary concepts for automotive user interfaces that offer safe, diverse, and easy-to-use means to perform non-driving-related activities besides the regular driving tasks. Using empirical methods that are commonly used in human-computer interaction, we investigate various aspects of automotive user interfaces with the goal to support the design and development of future interfaces that facilitate non-driving-related activities. The first aspect is related to using physiological data in order to infer information about the driver’s workload. As a second aspect, we propose a multimodal interaction style to facilitate the interaction with multiple activities in the car. In addition, we introduce two concepts for the support of commonly used and demanded non-driving-related activities: For communication with the outside world, we investigate the driver’s needs with regard to sharing ride details with remote persons in order to increase driving safety. Finally, we present a concept of time-adjusted activities (e.g., entertainment and productivity) which enable the driver to make use of times where only little attention is required. Starting with manual, non-automated driving, we also consider the rise of automated driving modes.When cars were invented, they allowed the driver and potential passengers to get to a distant location. The only activities the driver was able and supposed to perform were related to maneuvering the vehicle, i.e., accelerate, decelerate, and steer the car. Today drivers perform many activities that go beyond these driving tasks. This includes for example activities related to driving assistance, location-based information and navigation, entertainment, communication, and productivity. To perform these activities, drivers use functions that are provided by in-vehicle information systems in the car. Many of these functions are meant to increase driving safety or to make the ride more enjoyable. The latter is important since people spend a considerable amount of time in their cars and want to perform similar activities like those to which they are accustomed to from using mobile devices. However, as long as the driver is responsible for driving, these activities can be distracting and pose driver, passengers, and the environment at risk. One goal for the development of automotive user interfaces is therefore to enable an easy and appropriate operation of in-vehicle systems such that driving tasks and non-driving-related activities can be performed easily and safely. The main contribution of this thesis is a set of guidelines and exemplary concepts for automotive user interfaces that offer safe, diverse, and easy-to-use means to perform also non-driving-related activities while driving. Using empirical methods that are commonly used in human-computer interaction, we approach various aspects of automotive user interfaces in order to support the design and development of future interfaces that also enable non-driving-related activities. Starting with manual, non-automated driving, we also consider the transition towards automated driving modes. As a first part, we look at the prerequisites that enable non-driving-related activities in the car. We propose guidelines for the design and development of automotive user interfaces that also support non-driving-related activities. This includes for instance rules on how to adapt or interrupt activities when the level of automation changes. To enable activities in the car, we propose a novel interaction concept that facilitates multimodal interaction in the car by combining speech interaction and touch gestures. Moreover, we reveal aspects on how to infer information about the driver's state (especially mental workload) by using physiological data. We conducted a real-world driving study to extract a data set with physiological and context data. This can help to better understand the driver state, to adapt interfaces to the driver and driving situations, and to adapt the route selection process. Second, we propose two concepts for supporting non-driving-related activities that are frequently used and demanded in the car. For telecommunication, we propose a concept to increase driving safety when communicating with the outside world. This concept enables the driver to share different types of information with remote parties. Thereby, the driver can choose between different levels of details ranging from abstract information such as ``Alice is driving right now'' up to sharing a video of the driving scene. We investigated the drivers' needs on the go and derived guidelines for the design of communication-related functions in the car through an online survey and in-depth interviews. As a second aspect, we present an approach to offer time-adjusted entertainment and productivity tasks to the driver. The idea is to allow time-adjusted tasks during periods where the demand for the driver's attention is low, for instance at traffic lights or during a highly automated ride. Findings from a web survey and a case study demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. With the findings of this thesis we envision to provide a basis for future research and development in the domain of automotive user interfaces and non-driving-related activities in the transition from manual driving to highly and fully automated driving.Als das Auto erfunden wurde, ermöglichte es den Insassen hauptsächlich, entfernte Orte zu erreichen. Die einzigen Tätigkeiten, die Fahrerinnen und Fahrer während der Fahrt erledigen konnten und sollten, bezogen sich auf die Steuerung des Fahrzeugs. Heute erledigen die Fahrerinnen und Fahrer diverse Tätigkeiten, die über die ursprünglichen Aufgaben hinausgehen und sich nicht unbedingt auf die eigentliche Fahraufgabe beziehen. Dies umfasst unter anderem die Bereiche Fahrerassistenz, standortbezogene Informationen und Navigation, Unterhaltung, Kommunikation und Produktivität. Informationssysteme im Fahrzeug stellen den Fahrerinnen und Fahrern Funktionen bereit, um diese Aufgaben auch während der Fahrt zu erledigen. Viele dieser Funktionen verbessern die Fahrsicherheit oder dienen dazu, die Fahrt angenehm zu gestalten. Letzteres wird immer wichtiger, da man inzwischen eine beträchtliche Zeit im Auto verbringt und dabei nicht mehr auf die Aktivitäten und Funktionen verzichten möchte, die man beispielsweise durch die Benutzung von Smartphone und Tablet gewöhnt ist. Solange der Fahrer selbst fahren muss, können solche Aktivitäten von der Fahrtätigkeit ablenken und eine Gefährdung für die Insassen oder die Umgebung darstellen. Ein Ziel bei der Entwicklung automobiler Benutzungsschnittstellen ist daher eine einfache, adäquate Bedienung solcher Systeme, damit Fahraufgabe und Nebentätigkeiten gut und vor allem sicher durchgeführt werden können. Der Hauptbeitrag dieser Arbeit umfasst einen Leitfaden und beispielhafte Konzepte für automobile Benutzungsschnittstellen, die eine sichere, abwechslungsreiche und einfache Durchführung von Tätigkeiten jenseits der eigentlichen Fahraufgabe ermöglichen. Basierend auf empirischen Methoden der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion stellen wir verschiedene Lösungen vor, die die Entwicklung und Gestaltung solcher Benutzungsschnittstellen unterstützen. Ausgehend von der heute üblichen nicht automatisierten Fahrt betrachten wir dabei auch Aspekte des automatisierten Fahrens. Zunächst betrachten wir die notwendigen Voraussetzungen, um Tätigkeiten jenseits der Fahraufgabe zu ermöglichen. Wir stellen dazu einen Leitfaden vor, der die Gestaltung und Entwicklung von automobilen Benutzungsschnittstellen unterstützt, die das Durchführen von Nebenaufgaben erlauben. Dies umfasst zum Beispiel Hinweise, wie Aktivitäten angepasst oder unterbrochen werden können, wenn sich der Automatisierungsgrad während der Fahrt ändert. Um Aktivitäten im Auto zu unterstützen, stellen wir ein neuartiges Interaktionskonzept vor, das eine multimodale Interaktion im Fahrzeug mit Sprachbefehlen und Touch-Gesten ermöglicht. Für automatisierte Fahrzeugsysteme und zur Anpassung der Interaktionsmöglichkeiten an die Fahrsituation stellt der Fahrerzustand (insbesondere die mentale Belastung) eine wichtige Information dar. Durch eine Fahrstudie im realen Straßenverkehr haben wir einen Datensatz generiert, der physiologische Daten und Kontextinformationen umfasst und damit Rückschlüsse auf den Fahrerzustand ermöglicht. Mit diesen Informationen über Fahrerinnen und Fahrer wird es möglich, den Fahrerzustand besser zu verstehen, Benutzungsschnittstellen an die aktuelle Fahrsituation anzupassen und die Routenwahl anzupassen. Außerdem stellen wir zwei konkrete Konzepte zur Unterstützung von Nebentätigkeiten vor, die schon heute regelmäßig bei der Fahrt getätigt oder verlangt werden. Im Bereich der Telekommunikation stellen wir dazu ein Konzept vor, das die Fahrsicherheit beim Kommunizieren mit Personen außerhalb des Autos erhöht. Das Konzept erlaubt es dem Fahrer, unterschiedliche Arten von Kontextinformationen mit Kommunikationspartnern zu teilen. Dies reicht von der abstrakten Information, dass man derzeit im Auto unterwegs ist bis hin zum Teilen eines Live-Videos der aktuellen Fahrsituation. Diesbezüglich haben wir über eine Web-Umfrage und detaillierte Interviews die Bedürfnisse der Nutzer(innen) erhoben und ausgewertet. Zudem stellen wir ein prototypisches Konzept sowie Richtlinien vor, wie künftige Kommunikationsaufgaben im Fahrzeug gestaltet werden sollen. Als ein zweites Konzept betrachten wir zeitbeschränkte Aufgaben zur Unterhaltung und Produktivität im Fahrzeug. Die Idee ist hier, zeitlich begrenzte Aufgaben in Zeiten niedriger Belastung zuzulassen, wie zum Beispiel beim Warten an einer Ampel oder während einer hochautomatisierten (Teil-) Fahrt. Ergebnisse aus einer Web-Umfrage und einer Fallstudie zeigen die Machbarkeit dieses Ansatzes auf. Mit den Ergebnissen dieser Arbeit soll eine Basis für künftige Forschung und Entwicklung gelegt werden, um im Bereich automobiler Benutzungsschnittstellen insbesondere nicht-fahr-bezogene Aufgaben im Übergang zwischen manuellem Fahren und einer hochautomatisierten Autofahrt zu unterstützen

A speaker classification framework for non-intrusive user modeling : speech-based personalization of in-car services

Speaker Classification, i.e. the automatic detection of certain characteristics of a person based on his or her voice, has a variety of applications in modern computer technology and artificial intelligence: As a non-intrusive source for user modeling, it can be employed for personalization of human-machine interfaces in numerous domains. This dissertation presents a principled approach to the design of a novel Speaker Classification system for automatic age and gender recognition which meets these demands. Based on literature studies, methods and concepts dealing with the underlying pattern recognition task are developed. The final system consists of an incremental GMM-SVM supervector architecture with several optimizations. An extensive data-driven experiment series explores the parameter space and serves as evaluation of the component. Further experiments investigate the language-independence of the approach. As an essential part of this thesis, a framework is developed that implements all tasks associated with the design and evaluation of Speaker Classification in an integrated development environment that is able to generate efficient runtime modules for multiple platforms. Applications from the automotive field and other domains demonstrate the practical benefit of the technology for personalization, e.g. by increasing local danger warning lead time for elderly drivers.Die Sprecherklassifikation, also die automatische Erkennung bestimmter Merkmale einer Person anhand ihrer Stimme, besitzt eine Vielzahl von Anwendungsmöglichkeiten in der modernen Computertechnik und Künstlichen Intelligenz: Als nicht-intrusive Wissensquelle für die Benutzermodellierung kann sie zur Personalisierung in vielen Bereichen eingesetzt werden. In dieser Dissertation wird ein fundierter Ansatz zum Entwurf eines neuartigen Sprecherklassifikationssystems zur automatischen Bestimmung von Alter und Geschlecht vorgestellt, welches diese Anforderungen erfüllt. Ausgehend von Literaturstudien werden Konzepte und Methoden zur Behandlung des zugrunde liegenden Mustererkennungsproblems entwickelt, welche zu einer inkrementell arbeitenden GMM-SVM-Supervector-Architektur mit diversen Optimierungen führen. Eine umfassende datengetriebene Experimentalreihe dient der Erforschung des Parameterraumes und zur Evaluierung der Komponente. Weitere Studien untersuchen die Sprachunabhängigkeit des Ansatzes. Als wesentlicher Bestandteil der Arbeit wird ein Framework entwickelt, das alle im Zusammenhang mit Entwurf und Evaluierung von Sprecherklassifikation anfallenden Aufgaben in einer integrierten Entwicklungsumgebung implementiert, welche effiziente Laufzeitmodule für verschiedene Plattformen erzeugen kann. Anwendungen aus dem Automobilbereich und weiteren Domänen demonstrieren den praktischen Nutzen der Technologie zur Personalisierung, z.B. indem die Vorlaufzeit von lokalen Gefahrenwarnungen für ältere Fahrer erhöht wird