A Study on the Design and Effectiveness of Tactile Feedback in Driving Simulator

Driving simulations are widely used to send navigational and warning information to help drivers navigate safely. The traditional approaches are to use visual and auditory channels which can cause sensory overloading. Haptic has major safety implication on reducing visual and auditory overloading in driving, and since seats are the largest area in touch with the driver's body, it is a sensible choice to consider for delivering the haptic information. This paper presents the design and development of an optimal vibrotactile seat to provide a high level of satisfaction to the driver. The seat was designed by experimenting with different design parameters such as the intensity, position, and the rhythm of vibrations. Experiments were conducted to investigate the proper values of voltage, frequency, and amplitude that are specifically related to the developed haptic seat. A driving simulation was developed to evaluate the haptic seat for vehicle navigation in an immersive virtual driving simulator. Results showed that users preferred the vibrations to the audio feedback.