pieTouch: a direct touch gesture interface for interacting with in-vehicle information systems

Touch-sensitive displays seem like a natural and promising option for dealing with the increasing complexity of current in-vehicle information systems (IVIS), but since they can hardly be used without visual attention conventional point touch systems are rarely considered in cars. To ensure road safety, the drivers’ visual attention needs to be focused almost entirely to the road. In order to integrate touch screens successfully into cars, new concepts are needed to reduce visual demand. The adaptation of pie menus serving as a visualisation of gestures reduces the user’s cognitive load, and we were able to achieve an almost blind interaction with the IVIS. We compared our design to a generic touch system using a dual task evaluation method (Lane Change Task [18][20]), and the results regarding total task completion time, lane deviation and subjective preferences confirm a higher usability and efficiency, as well as an added hedonic quality of pieTouch. Categories and Subject Desc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: MHCI
• Authors: Ronald Ecker, Verena Broy, Andreas Butz, Alexander De Luca
• Keywords: In-vehicle Information, MHCI 2009, Touch Screens, Visual Attention