A Simulator - Based Investigation of Visual , Auditory , and Mixed - Modality Display of Vehicle Dynamic State Information to Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators

(ABSTRACT) This simulator-based study examined the use of conventional auditory warnings (tonal, non-verbal sounds) and auditory icons (representational non-verbal sounds), alone and in combination with a dash-mounted visual display, to present information about impending collision situations to commercial motor vehicle operators. Brake response times were measured for impending front-to-rear collision scenarios under six display configurations, two vehicle speeds, and two levels of headway. Accident occurrence was measured for impending side collision scenarios under two vehicle speeds, two levels of visual workload, two auditory displays, absence/presence of mirrors, and absence/presence of dash-mounted iconic display. Subjective preference data was also obtained from participants. For both front-to-rear and side collision scenarios, auditory icons elicited significantly improved driver performance over conventional auditory warnings. Driver performance improved when collision warning information was presented through multiple modalities. Brake response times were significantly faster for impending front-to-rear collision scenarios using the longer headway criterion. The presence of mirrors significantly reduced the number of accidents for impending side collision scenarios. Subjective preference data indicated that participants preferred multi-modal displays over single-modality displays. A technique for systematically identifying, selecting, and evaluating candidate auditory icons was also developed. The potential exists to expand upon these iii developments, toward the goals of identifying appropriate auditory icons, improving operator performance, and developing information display techniques to effectively managing workload across multiple modalities. iv " Concern about the human being and his/her destiny must always be the main interest in every technical development effort...never forget that, amongst your diagrams and equations. " Albert Einstein v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to some of the people who contributed to this work. First, I would like to thank my Chairman, Dr. John Casali for his guidance and direction in the development and conduct of this research. I would also like to thank Dr. Gary Robinson for his encouragement and invaluable assistance in teaching me the finer points of hands-on laboratory research. Thanks are also due Dr. Brian Kleiner for his worthwhile advice and for serving on my graduate committee. Laboratory, for her patience, expertise, and for providing access to considerable sound libraries from which the majority of auditory icons were derived. Will Vest deserves much thanks for patiently providing invaluable assistance in building and troubleshooting much of the auxiliary computer hardware used in my experiment. I would also like to thank Randy Waldron for fabricating the simulator buck, rear-view mirror assembly, and …