In the 80’s the American classic TV series Knight Rider fascinated the world with its KITT a Pontiac controlled by artificial intelligence of a computer. Many automotive fans wondered if they would ever get those gizmos featured in KITT for real. The modern day car has almost all the features (to some extend) minus the lethal fire power of KITT in the form of In Vehicle Infotainment system and other gadgets etc. We interact with these multimodal gadgets everyday while we are driving the car as Music, Video, car phone, GPS Navigation, Night vision, Proximity detector and others. These gadgets had been a boon in one context and curse in the other when they tend to overshoot the features which may distract the driver while driving. Distracted driving is one of the issues for drivers involving in crashes and this post is to analysis if the auto manufacturers ( including automotive accessories manufacturers) have nailed this issue or not. Although there are many vehicles which has done great innovations on its dashboard to minimise driver distraction, this post is too small to cover them all.

In 2008 there were a total of 34,017 fatal crashes in the USA involving 50,186 drivers killing 37,261 individuals. Distraction was reported for 11 percent (5,501) of the drivers involved in fatal crashes. The proportion of fatalities reportedly associated with driver distraction increased from 12 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2008 (2009, Traffic safety facts, NHTSA).

Figure 2: Image source Traffic safety facts, NHTSA.

Although the main image (copyright belongs to Wallis Dress to kill Advt.) of this post exemplifies one of the causes for external distractions, this post will focus on internal distractions caused mainly by in vehicle infotainment system garnished in the vehicle dashboard.

Internal distraction is reserved for incidents in which the driver fails to recognize a situation requiring a response because his/her attention is directed to some event, object, person, or activity inside the vehicle. Relevant examples include tuning the radio, adjusting the heat/cooling system, engaging in a conversation with a passenger, using a cell phone, retrieving fallen objects, reading books/magazines/maps/invoices, etc. (NHTSA, 2009)

Designing a less distracting interface for Infotainment systems

In the past, research has proven that the combination of Visual and tactile interface is more effective on multiple tasks under high workload. It is also known that multi modal interface has provided advantages in reducing reaction times and improving performance (JL Burke, et all, 2006). The notable measurements of distractions are eyes off the road and hands off the steering. Eyes off the road are used to measure Visual distraction and hands off the steering are used to measure manual distractions (NHTSA, Driver Distraction program).
It may sound like Jim Morrison’s Roadhouse blues, but eyes on the road and hands on the steering is one of the creed of safe driving.

Operation of any task through any interface which requires the drivers to keep their eyes away from the road and their hand(s) off the steering wheels contributes negatively to their driving.

Eyes on the road and Hands on the steering

If the In Vehicle Infotainment systems require the drivers to perform more operations in the touch screen interface then it may demand more eye gaze from drivers off the road and also hand(s) off the steering.

The In vehicle infotainment system in most vehicles today uses Touch screen (some use haptic touch screen), tactile, Voice and Gesture based interface. A blend of these interface will be essential to balance their advantages over others disadvantages for example

Tactile interface gives the users the advantage of haptic perception which helps the user orientate with the location of the button so that they can reduce the number of times to gaze at the button to perform an operation.

On the other hand Touch screen interface gives the user the advantage to customise the visual appearance of the controls, but it would not help them to orientate with the location of the button in the dashboard.

If you think you can orientate the location of the buttons without haptic perception and eye gaze in a touch screen infotainment system, please give this test a try.

Imagine you are driving a car now and your current browser screen as your infotainment systems touch screen interface. You want to change the state of the infotainment screen display from the current to something else. To perform this operation you need to tap on a button, let’s say that button is the browser close button (top right corner ‘X’ button). Now don’t stare at the infotainment display (computer screen) keep your eyes on the road (metaphorically speaking) tap on the close button.

If you have succeeded its mostly because your fingers hit on the top right corner of the computer monitor and that haptic perception helped you realise that you have placed your fingers on the close button of the browser.

Will you be able to perform the same if the button is on some other location where you won’t get any haptic perception? Try this test after you resize your browser window.

The importance of tactile buttons cannot be ignored and haptic touch screen may not be the solution to replace tactile interface in this scenario, I will discuss about the haptic touch screen later in a separate post.

Figure 3: Steering wheel with controls and Head up Display

Some vehicle manufacturers take advantage of tactile feedback by placing them on the steering wheel (image on the left) to keep the hands on the steering while performing few essential tasks which the drivers may perform while driving.

To keep the eyes on the road, many car manufactures use Head up display (HUB) as in image here to show navigation signs and other essential warnings to minimise the eyes off the road situation. This link demonstrates the head up display of one car manufacturer.

http://www.saab.co.uk/gb/en/start#/Cars/9-5sedan/overview/features-view/hud/

Impact of light on driving activity, Come sun or come moon.

According to The Automobile Association Limited” blinding glare caused by a low sun, or by bright light reflecting off snow, puddles, the car in front, or even your own bonnet can be potentially lethal, particularly when driving at speed. Glare is frequently cited as the cause of road traffic accidents, but the right pair of sunglasses can prevent it… Polarised lenses are normally fixed tints, but their inherent properties can significantly help to reduce glare. Their effect can be very evident on wet roads.” (AA, 2010).

But there are few indications that Polarised sunglasses and LCD display won’t go together.

Using polarized lenses to view any type of LCD screen, such as the ones in the dashboard of some vehicles, could be problematic.

Apparently, when an LCD screen is viewed at a certain angle through polarized lenses the screens can become invisible. Predominantly that is the reason why polarised sunglasses are not advised for pilots since polarisation can reduce or eliminate the visibility of instruments that incorporate anti-glare filters (Sunglasses for pilots, FAA) So it’s either the institutions which develop the standards of the driving sunglasses or the display manufactures should take a call on this.

Night driving is often considered more hazardous, because the drivers are fighting against their system which wants to sleep and their reflex will be very low because of fatigue. The driver’s eye has to adjust to the glare from the lights of oncoming traffic. With passing years the car dashboard is garnished with more electronic gadgets then it was earlier.

Figure 2: Car driving in night

The light emitted from these electronic gadgets mounted on the dashboard, affects the time it takes to adjust the eyes for the driver to the sudden brightness of the lights of oncoming traffic.

In the 90’s SAAB came out with an innovative Black panel feature which would turn off all the illuminated controls in the dashboard; this would help the driver to focus more on the light outside the car then inside. The video below will illustrate the SAAB Black Panel (now it’s called Night Panel)

http://www.youtube.com/saabhistory#p/search/3/7oen8L574oo

Are we heading the right way?

Right from the first radio which featured in the car in 1930’s, till the proposed 17 inch touch screen infotainment system from Tesla Model S (click here for video) had been debatable.

“To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. You can never change things by fighting the existing reality.” Buckminster Fuller

Maybe we should stop overloading the dashboard with gadgets and look in a different perspective for a solution, which would feed the info hungry drivers with very minimal distraction. In the near future augmented reality Head-Up Display (HUD) could be a silver bullet for driver distraction and many auto giants are into it.

When it comes to automobiles, if it is not safe, its aesthetics or its features is not worth a nickel.

References and acknowledgements

Figure 1 Courtesy Wallis dress to kill

Figure 2 Traffics safety facts, 2009, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Figure 3 Courtesy Siva Kumar

Figure 4 Courtesy SAAB United

Traffics safety facts, 2009, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Driver distraction program, 2010, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

AA, 2010, retrieved on 28 July, 2010, from http://www.theaa.com/public_affairs/reports/driving-in-sunglasses.html

Sunglasses for Pilots, MEDICAL FACTS FOR PILOTS, Federal Aviation Administration, Publication AM-400-05/1

JL Bureke et all, 2006, Comparing the Effects of Visual-Auditory and Visual-Tactile Feedback on User Performance: A Meta-analysis

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The trend to design inclusive of elders is catching up with the manufacturers to cater the grey pound/dollar market, in the process of designing an usable product for the elderly people many manufacturers fail to note how the elder people perceive the product when they use it and how others perceive those products while the elders use them. Some products are merely designed based on the stereotypes linked to the age group of the elderly person and not based on their actual capabilities. Product designers who design products based only on the age group of the users may perhaps be influenced by the categorised capabilities linked to that age group. Users who are miscategorised by the product designers would be discontented with the products.

Why we categorise or miscategorise?

According to Fiske & Neuberg (1990) categorisation is an adaptive feature of the brain, because it frees up cognition to perform more important tasks. Once we know that the object before us is a table, we know what its purpose is and how to think about it, based on our earlier acquired information about tables and their features (Mervis & Rosch, 1981; Rosch, 1978 cited in Tedd S. Nelson, 2009). However, when we start applying this natural tendency to categorise objects in our environment to people, the categorization process is not nearly as accurate nor is it free of consequences. Miscategorising a couch for a bed likely will not be a big deal under most circumstances. However, mistakenly categorizing a man as a woman might get you a punch in the face! Despite this and other risks, everyone tends to categorize other people on an innumerable array of dimensions (Tedd D. Nelson, 2009).

The view of older people as dependent, incompetent, and in decline both physical and mentally (Lieberman & Peskin, 1992 cited in Tedd D. Nelson, 2009) tends to lead younger people to treat older persons as if they were children. This is called infantilization (Gresham, 1973). Older people are shielded by younger persons from issues in the world or their own life that the younger person may deem ‘too complicated’ or ‘too upsetting’. Accompanying ageist behaviour and infantilization is usually a marked difference in the much younger persons speak to elderly persons. Caporael (1981) had identified a particular ageist communication style termed baby talk in his research on intergenerational communication. This means that the ways we speak to older adults are virtually identical to how we speak to babies.

Caporael et al. (1983) found that older people who had higher cognitive functioning and were overall in better health found that baby talk and infantilization behaviour to be very insulting, and it made them angry.

However, for those with diminished cognitive abilities or health problems, such ageist speech and behaviour was perceived as comforting (Tedd Nelson, 2009). The ideal example to illustrate the infantilization, baby talk and Miscategorisation of elder people was portrayed by Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski in the movie Gran Torino (2008).

Meet Mr. Kowalski our celluloid persona

Gift from Son and Daughter in Law

Click here to view the day in the life of Mr. Kowalski

Mr. Walt Kowalski was a retired Polish American Ford factory worker and Korean War veteran. He lived with his yellow Labrador retriever, Daisy, in a Highland Park, Michigan neighbourhood, He had higher cognitive functioning and in better health to do his day to day routine activities as portrayed in the movie Gran Torino (2008). Mr. Kowalski’s son and his daughter in law visit him on his birthday and gift him an accessible phone alone with an arm extender which would enable him to reach any object easily, although Mr. Kowalski was old, but he lead an active lifestyle with high cognition, good vision , good hearing (no kidding watch this video). The gift which he got from his son and daughter in law reflects the ‘infantilization’ propounded by Gresham (1973) and our celluloid persona did found the gift very insulting.

Do the old people feel as old as the young people presume them to be?

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends on aging between a nationally (USA)representative sample of 2,969 adults finds a sizable gap among the expectations that young and middle-aged adults have about old age and the experiences reported by older Americans themselves.

Figure 2 The challenges of aging

The survey respondents are asked about a series of negative benchmarks often associated with aging, such as illness, memory loss, an inability to drive, an end to sexual activity, a struggle with loneliness and depression, and difficulty paying bills.

In every instance, older adults report experiencing them at lower levels (often far lower) than younger adults report expecting to encounter them when they grow old.

Survey respondents age 18 to 29 believe that the average person becomes old at age 60. Middle-aged respondents put the threshold closer to 70, and respondents ages 65 and above say that the average person does not become old until turning 74.

Other potential markers of old age–such as forgetfulness, retirement, becoming sexually inactive, experiencing bladder control problems, getting gray hair, having grandchildren–are the subjects of similar perceptual gaps. For example, nearly two-thirds of adults ages 18 to 29 believe that when someone “frequently forgets familiar names,” that person is old. Less than half of all adults ages 30 and older agree.

However, a handful of potential markers–failing health, an inability to live independently, an inability to drive, difficulty with stairs–engender agreement across all generations about the degree to which they serve as an indicator of old age.

From the survey it was found that Public opinion in the aggregate may decree that the average person becomes old at age 68, but you won’t get too far trying to convince people that age that the threshold applies to them. Among respondents ages 65-74, just 21% say they feel old. Even among those who are 75 and older, just 35% say they feel old.

The percentage of gap as shown in figure 2 is the percentage of elderly people who are mis categorised by the young people (as per PEW survey it was people aged between18 to 64). You can access the full survey report from PEW Social Trends.

Conclusion

Walt Kowalski may be an outlier in the data, but most of the elderly people’s capabilities exceed to operate the products designed for them resulting in ‘infantilization’ propounded by Gresham (1973).

Figure 3 Emporia LIFE plus mobile phone

Figure 4 Doro HandlePlus, simplest mobile phone

Designer should understand that products designed inclusive of elders needs to be aesthetically  pleasing excluding ‘infantilization’ as propounded by Gresham (1973).

The product features should be traded off based on the actual capabilities of the selected population instead of the stereotyped capabilities linked to their age, this would remove the stigma factors like ‘infantilization’ for some elder users.

The mobile phone in Figure 3 and figure 4 are the ideal example for functionalities trade off to meet the requirements of different capabilities of the elder people.

In figure 3 we can see the Emporia LIFE plus mobile phone it got big buttons, large display and other essential features needed to cater to elderly users who’s physical, vision, hearing and cognitive abilities are far better then the elderly people whose capabilities are limited to use the phone in figure 4.

By the way if you happen to be a diehard Dirty harry fan like me I am sure you will be disappointed with the way the movie ends. I was expecting Clint to ask that question “Do you feel lucky?”.

References and acknowledgements

Figure 1 : screen shots from the movie Gran Torino,2008, Courtesy IMBD

Figure 2 : Courtesy PEW Research center

Figure 3 : Courtesy Emporia LIFE plus mobile phone

Figure 4: Courtesy Doro HandlePlus mobile phone

Caporael, L., 1981, The paralanguage of caregiving: Baby talk to the institutionalized aged, Journal of  Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 876-884.

Caporael, L., Lukaszewski, M., & Culbertson, G., 1983, Secondary baby talk: Judgments by institutionalized elderly and their caregivers, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44,746-754.

Fiske, S.T., & Neuberg. S.L., 1990, A continuum of impression formation from category-based to  individualing process: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. In M.P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in experimantal social psychology (Vol.23, pp. 1-74). New York;         Academic.

Gran Torino, 2008, Motion picture, IMDB

Mervis, C.B., & Rosch, E., 1981, Categorization of natural objects, Annual Review of Psychology, 32,         89-115.

Pew Research Center, 2009, retrieved on 8 Oct, 2009, from  http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/736/getting-old-in-america

Todd D. Nelson, 2009, Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, Psychology press,Taylor & Francis group.

Yesterday I went to shop for a power drill, not that I was in the plan of building a Noah’s Ark but I thought it was necessary to have a power drill to make the life of a house handyman easy. And a discount of 20% on tools offered by a vendor was the driving force.

While I was browsing through the several models of power drills I came across the smart select range of power tools from Black Decker. Those smart select power tools did not have the numerical dial to adjust the torque instead they had the visual icon to represent the screw and surface not the science of torque.

If you had used a power drill or a power screw driver before, you would have noticed the numbers near the chuck (‘chuck?’ drill bit holder) they are the torque adjustment settings. The torque can be adjusted by turning the dials clockwise and counter clockwise as in the image below. Torque is the amount of power supplied to the chuck.

If the torque was high the chuck turns powerfully and drills the screw into the most resistant of materials. The size of screw together with the material accepting the screw will influence the torque required for a particular job. Normally the adjustment is by a numerical dial – often up to 16 positions with low numbers being low torque.

But how many of us (budding DIY enthusiasts) will know the torque requirement for a particular size of screw together with the material accepting the screw?

Black Decker solved the problem with their ‘Smart Select’ range of power tools. Smart select dials has the visual of screws alone with the material accepting the screws. Earlier the job of running an one inch screw in a wood plank requires some guess work for budding DIY enthusiasts (calculation for master carpenter) to derive at the torque settings keeping in mind of the screw type and the material accepting the screw. With the smart select dial the power drill user can swivel the smart select dial to match the screw and the material accepting the screw. This visual cue help to reduce the task load of the power tool users. I would not be astonished if numerical dials were overwhelmed by smart select dials in the future.

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