Paper Reading#5: A multi-touch enabled steering wheel: exploring the design space

Reference Information

Pfeiffer, M., et al. (2010). A multi-touch enable steering wheel - exploring the design space. Proceeding of the Acm conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 3355-3360). Atlanta.

Summary:

Cars offer an increasing number of infotainment systems as well as comfort functions that can be controlled by the driver. These researchers from Denmark investigate new interaction techniques that aim to make it easier to interact with these systems while driving. These researchers suggest using the steering wheel as additional interface surface in contrast to the standard approach of combining all functions into hierarchical menus controlled by a multifunctional controller or a touch screen .

This paper talks about multi-touch interaction on a steering wheel and investigates how to deal with input and output while driving and hence rotating the wheel. It describes the details of a functional prototype of a multi-touch steering wheel that is based on FTIR and a projector, which was built to explore experimentally the user experience created. In an initial study with 12 participants showed that the approach has a general utility and that people can use gestures for controlling applications intuitively. The researchers investigated new interaction techniques that aim to make it easier to interact with these systems while driving.

Discussion:

I think the idea of putting the controls on the streering wheel is brilliant. Having controls on the dashboard can cause significant driver distraction. Having these controls located on the steering will significantly reduce the risk of an accident. Most car companies already place some buttons like the cruise control, phone call receive and speaker phone option etc. on the steering wheel. However, I can't see how this will work since the central area of the steering wheel houses the airbag and can't be used for any electronics.