Approach for Enhancing the Perception and Prediction of Traffic Dynamics with a Tactile Interface

Participation in road traffic frequently requires fast and accurate understanding of environmental object characteristics. Here we introduce an assistance function and corresponding interface targeted at enhancing a driver's perception and understanding of environment dynamics in order to improve driving safety and performance. The core functionality of this assistance function lies in the tactile communication of spatio-temporal proximity information about one or multiple traffic participants that are on a collision trajectory with the ego-vehicle. We investigate effects of this assistance function on driver perception and performance in a driving simulator study. Preliminary results show that participants were able to intuitively understand and use the assistance function and that its utility seems to increase with task difficulty.