Vibro-Tactile Information Presentation in Automobiles

This paper describes the potential of using vibro-tactile displays for automobile drivers. Technological developments in the field of driver support systems and tactile displays, combined with the ever increasing need to enlarge the capacity of the driver's information channel, form the reason to review the possibilities of in-car tactile displays and to identify some promising applications. In the second part of the paper, we describe a feasibility study in which we tested an in-car tactile display in a driving simulator. The results show that the tactile navigation display resulted in better performance compared to a visual display, and that it reduces the driver’s workload. This study gives a first indication that employing the tactile modality may be a major step to accomplish safety improvements.