Designing the rotary switch operation feeling based on cross-modal correspondences between tactile and auditory sensations

Abstract

In recent years, the number of physical switches in in-vehicle devices has been reduced by consolidating several different control functions into a single control interface through active tactile devices. However, for such tactile devices to provide an improved user experience, the design must be carefully created to provide an appropriate operational feeling for each control function. The aim of this study was to find the best suitable combination of tactile and auditory sensations for the rotary knob-type tactile device to improve the user experience. The Semantic Differential method was used in the first experiment to evaluate electronically generated operating sounds, which enables the determination of the relationship between auditory impressions and acoustic features. In the second experiment, "the suitability of the combination of stimuli" was used to evaluate the impressions as an index during the simultaneous presentation of tactile and operating sounds. The results revealed a tendency for the stimuli to be perceived as "well-combined," with cross-modal correspondences between tactile and auditory sensations.