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Drivers commonly perform secondary tasks while behind the wheel to navigate or communicate with others, which has led to a significant increase in the number of injuries and fatalities attributed to distracted driving. Advances in wearable technology, particularly devices such as Google Glass, which feature voice control and head-up display (HUD) functionalities, raise questions about how these devices might impact driver attention when used in vehicles. New human factors/ergonomics research examines how these interface characteristics can have a deleterious effect on safety.
In their Human Factors article, "Driving While Interacting With Google Glass: Investigating the Combined Effect of Head-Up Display and Hands-Free Input on Driving Safety and Multitask Performance," authors Kathryn Tippey, Elayaraj Sivaraj, and Thomas Ferris observed the performance of 24 participants in a driving simulator. The participants engaged in four texting-while-driving tasks: baseline (driving only), and driving plus reading and responding to text messages via (a) a smartphone keyboard, (b) a smartphone voice-to text system, and (c) Google Glass' voice-to-text system using HUD.
The authors found that driving performance degraded regardless of secondary texting task type, but manual entry led to slower reaction times and significantly more eyes-off-road glances than voice-to-text input using both smartphones and Google Glass. Glass' HUD function required only a change in eye direction to read and respond to text messages, rather than the more disruptive change in head and body posture associated with smartphones. Participants also reported that Glass was easier to use and interfered less with driving than did the other devices tested.
IOW, wait until you're in a self-driving car before you mix texting and driving.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:54AM (3 children)
My phone pairs with my car.
My car asks if I want it to read incoming text messages aloud. I answer with yes or no.
I can push a button on the steering wheel and ask to car to send a text message to anyone in my phone's phone book, and then recite the message aloud. Car reads it back, I say yes or no. Done. I never need look away from the road.
This problem has been solved for quite a while now, at least since 2012.
The options required to support this is just bluetooth.
The smarts can be cheaply built into the car, and probably is in most new cars already.
Voice reco is a thing.
Or it could be totally built into the phone without any car integration.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:46AM
s/t
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:47AM (1 child)
As TFS points out, the problem is the cognitive load, not just looking away from the road.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:13PM
As TFS points out, the problem is the cognitive load, not just looking away from the road.
Well, TFS has some cognitive dissonance. The conclusion from the quoted material:
manual entry led to slower reaction times and significantly more eyes-off-road glances than voice-to-text input using both smartphones and Google Glass. Glass' HUD function required only a change in eye direction to read and respond to text messages, rather than the more disruptive change in head and body posture associated with smartphones. Participants also reported that Glass was easier to use and interfered less with driving than did the other devices tested.
The conclusion TFS draws from that: ZOMG texting evil bad.
The conclusion I draw here: Hands-free eyes-free solution from GP would be even better than the google glass solution which won "best in show" as cited by TFS above. The cognitive load seems a distant secondary factor. "Looking away" is the big distraction, which GP's solution avoids completely.