Enhancing environmental engagement with natural language interfaces for in-vehicle navigation systems

Four on-road studies were conducted in the Clifton area of Nottingham, UK, aiming to explore the relationships between driver workload and environmental engagement associated with ‘active’ and ‘passive’ navigation systems. In a between-subjects design, a total of 61 experienced drivers completed two experimental drives comprising the same three routes (with overlapping sections), staged one week apart. Drivers were provided with the navigational support of a commercially-available navigation device (‘satnav’), an informed passenger (a stranger with expert route knowledge), a collaborative passenger (an individual with whom they had a close, personal relationship) or a novel interface employing conversational natural language NAV-NLI). The NAV-NLI was created by curating linguistic intercourse extracted from the earlier conditions, and delivering this using a Wizard-of-Oz technique. The different navigational methods were notable for their varying interactivity and the preponderance of environmental landmark information within route directions. Participants experienced the same guidance on each of the two drives to explore changes in reported and observed behaviour. Results show that participants who were more active in the navigation task (collaborative passenger or NAV-NLI) demonstrated enhanced environmental engagement (landmark recognition, route-learning and survey knowledge) allowing them to reconstruct the route more accurately post-drive, compared to drivers using more passive forms of navigational support (SatNav or informed passenger). Workload measures (TDT, NASA-TLX) indicated no differences between conditions, although satnav users and collaborative passenger drivers reported lower workload during their second drive. The research demonstrates clear benefits and potential for a navigation system employing two-way conversational language to deliver instructions. This could help support a long-term perspective in the development of spatial knowledge, enabling drivers to become less reliant on the technology and begin to re-establish associations between viewing an environmental feature and the related navigational manoeuvre

Visuaalisen neglectin tunnistamisen haasteet kognitiivisessa ajokykyarviossa: tapaustutkimus

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, kuinka luotettavasti visuaalista vasemman puolen neglectiä ja ajokykyä pystytään arvioimaan kognitiivisilla kynä-paperitehtävillä kliinisessä yksilöarvioinnissa. Suoriutumista kynä-paperitehtävissä (Rey, Reyn välitön tahaton mieleenpalautus, BIT perinteiset osatehtävät, Vilkin viivat) verrattiin suoriutumiseen simulaattoriajossa. Lisäksi tarkasteltiin visuaalista havainnointia simulaattoriajon aikana silmänliikkeitä mittaamalla. Tutkimukseen osallistui kolme neglect-potilasta ja 17 tervettä verrokkia. Lopulliseen aineistoanalyysiin otettiin kymmenen verrokkia, koska seitsemän joutui keskeyttämään simulaattoripahoinvoinnin takia. Vasemman puolen havainnointi oli oikeaa puolta heikompaa ja ajaminen erittäin virhealtista siitä huolimatta, että kognitiivinen testisuoriutuminen ei antanut kahdella kolmesta neglect-potilaasta viitteitä neglect-oireista ja siten antanut aihetta epäillä heidän ajokykyään. Lisäksi neglect-potilaiden oiretiedostus näyttäytyi huomattavan heikkona. Tämä tutkimus antaa viitteitä siitä, että perinteiset kynä-paperitehtävät eivät ole riittävän herkkiä tunnistamaan visuaalista vasemman puolen neglectiä kliinisessä yksilöarvioinnissa 6–7,5 kuukautta aivoverenvuodon jälkeen eivätkä pysty luotettavasti ennustamaan potilaiden ajokykyisyyttä. Abstract The aim of this study was to clarify how reliably neglect symptoms and driving ability can be evaluated by cognitive paper and pencil tests in clinical assessment. Paper and pencil test performance (Rey, Rey immediate recall, BIT traditional subtests, Vilkki visual search for parallel lines) was compared to the driving simulator performance. Additionally, the visual search was recorded by eye-tracking device during simulator drive. Three neglect patients and 17 healthy controls participated in this study. Ten healthy controls were included in the final analyses. Seven healthy controls quit the study due to simulator sickness and their data was excluded from final analyses. Despite the fact that neglect was not revealed in the cognitive tests and thus there was no reason to doubt the driving ability of two out of three patients, neglect patients’ simulator drive was full of driving errors and perception of the left side was weaker than of the right side. Additionally, all the patients had clear anosognosia. This study suggests that traditional paper and pencil tests are not sensitive enough to recognize left visual neglect in clinical assessment 6–7.5 months after hemorrhage and cannot reliably predict the ability to drive. Keywords: neglect, hemi-inattention, driving, simulator, assessmen

From Manual Driving to Automated Driving: A Review of 10 Years of AutoUI

This paper gives an overview of the ten-year devel- opment of the papers presented at the International ACM Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutoUI) from 2009 to 2018. We categorize the topics into two main groups, namely, manual driving-related research and automated driving-related re- search. Within manual driving, we mainly focus on studies on user interfaces (UIs), driver states, augmented reality and head-up displays, and methodology; Within automated driv- ing, we discuss topics, such as takeover, acceptance and trust, interacting with road users, UIs, and methodology. We also discuss the main challenges and future directions for AutoUI and offer a roadmap for the research in this area.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153959/1/From Manual Driving to Automated Driving: A Review of 10 Years of AutoUI.pdfDescription of From Manual Driving to Automated Driving: A Review of 10 Years of AutoUI.pdf : Main articl

On the Visual Distraction Effects of Audio-Visual Route Guidance

This is the first controlled quantitative analysis on the visual distraction effects of audio-visual route guidance in simulated, but ecologically realistic driving scenarios with dynamic maneuvers and self-controlled speed (N = 24). The audio-visual route guidance system under testing passed the set verification criteria, which was based on drivers’ preferred occlusion distances on the test routes. There were no significant effects of an upcoming maneuver instruction location (up, down) on the in-car display on any metric or on the experienced workload. The drivers’ median occlusion distances correlated significantly with median incar glance distances. There was no correlation between drivers’ median occlusion distance and intolerance of uncertainty but significant inverse correlations between occlusion distances and age as well as driving experience were found. The findings suggest that the visual distraction effects of audio-visual route guidance are low and provide general support for the proposed testing method.peerReviewe