Karlin Bark

User-centered perspectives for automotive augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) in automobiles has the potential to significantly alter the drivers user experience. Prototypes developed in academia and industry demonstrate a range of applications from advanced driver assist systems to location-based information services. A user-centered process for creating and evaluating designs for AR displays in automobiles helps to explore what collaborative role AR should serve between the technologies of the automobile and the driver. In particular, we consider the nature of this role along three important perspectives: understanding human perception, understanding distraction and understanding human behavior. We argue that AR applications should focus solely on tasks that involve the immediate local driving environment and not secondary task spaces to minimize driver distraction. Consistent depth cues should be supported by the technology to aid proper distance judgement. Driving aids supporting situation awareness should be designed with knowledge of current and future states of road users, while focusing on specific problems. Designs must also take into account behavioral phenomena such as risk compensation, inattentional blindness and an over-reliance on augmented technology in driving decisions.

A left-turn driving aid using projected oncoming vehicle paths with augmented reality

Making left turns across oncoming traffic without a protected left-turn signal is a significant safety concern at intersections. In a left turn situation, the driver typically does not have the right of way and must determine when to initiate the turn maneuver safely. It has been reported that a drivers inability to correctly judge the velocity and time gap of the oncoming vehicles is a major cause of left turn crashes. Although the position and velocity of surrounding vehicles is available using camera and laser based vehicle detection and tracking, methods on how to effectively communicate such information to help the driver have been relatively under-explored. In this paper, we describe a left turn aid that displays a 3 second projected path of the oncoming vehicle in the drivers environment with a 3D Head-Up Display (3D-HUD). Utilizing the abilities of our 3D-HUD to show the projected path in Augmented Reality (AR) could help increase driver intuition and alleviate visual distraction as compared to other possible non-AR solutions. Through an iterative process utilizing early user feedback, the design of the left turn aid was refined to interfere less with the driver view and be more effective. A pilot study has been designed for a driving simulation environment and can be used to evaluate the potential of the proposed AR left turn aid in helping the driver be more cautious or efficient when turning left.