Spatial Auditory based Interaction Model for Driver Assistance System

Abstract

The expansion of Malaysia's automobile industry has witnessed the emergence of driver assistance system (DAS) that enables the interaction between the driver and the vehicle. Over the past few years, DAS has become a necessity and is commonly found on conventional vehicles instead of as luxury equipments on high-end vehicles. The rapid development of DAS provides drivers with radically enhanced information and functionality. The nature of the current DAS requires a complex human-machine interaction which is distracting and may increase the risk of road accidents. The interaction between the driver and DAS should aid the driving process without interfering with safety and ease of vehicle operation. Speech based interaction mechanisms employed are not sufficiently robust to deal with the noise present in the interior environment of the vehicle. Simultaneous speech based interaction from components of DAS would annoy and increase the driver's cognitive burden. Therefore, suitable hybrid spatial auditory interaction principles for DAS are developed on principles that utilize concurrent auditory data transmission and its location source of origin in the in-vehicle environment. The proposed model exploits four (4) auditory sources in the vehicle's interior environment. These interfaces are investigated in driving simulator experiments in-order to test their durability and robustness. This will ensure the driving- related information from the DAS is delivered to the driver without affecting the overall driving process.