Menu Sonification in an Automotive Media Center : Design and Evaluation
Résumé
The automobile needs to transmit to its driver, and its occupants, a certain amount of information relative to driving and the use of life systems on board (aid with navigation via GPS or radio, for example). The passenger compartment of the car thus becomes an increasingly demanding environment in terms of sensory attention; as Ho and Spence write in the introduction of [HO, 2008]: “the act of driving represents a highly complex skill requiring the sustained monitoring of integrated perceptual and cognitive inputs”. Information is most often presented in a visual form, with the help of signals and display boards on which texts and graphics appear. The sound modality is also mobilized when it is advantageous compared to the visual mode. This is particularly the case when the driver gets out of his1 vehicle and has therefore little chance to look at the dashboard (the sound warning “forgotten light” is part of this category). Another example is when an important message – which will require a rapid reaction from the driver – appears on a display: the sound then attracts the gaze towards the visual (the sound alarm “door open while moving” corresponds to this scenario). On this subject, it is interesting to greater than that caused by an auditory prompt. The automobile constructor nonetheless tries not to overload the passenger compartment with sound alarms, as sound in contrast to sight, is harder to ignore and can therefore very quickly become cumbersome: it is therefore advisable to use it wisely. That being said, driving – the main task to carry out when on board the vehicle – requires very sustained visual attention. The tasks on board, secondary to driving, must therefore be able to be carried out without impairing visual concentration to the detriment of driving. This is why the sound modality is, in theory, beneficial in assisting the driver in the use of multimedia systems, particularly when they offer increasingly varied functions. The benefit of these is also in the fact that they can be transposed to other domains where the notions of control and shared attention are also strategic, for example a plane cockpit or a control (or supervision) room. Resorting to the auditory modality to help navigation in these systems therefore meets a first priority challenge on board the vehicle: to ensure driving safety. The second challenge, of an ergonomic nature, is to create a sound human–machine interface that is easy to learn and use: it will need to be intuitive so that the driver can appropriate it quickly, without the risk of his driving being affected when he is using the multimedia system. Finally, a well designed sound interface, based on quality sounds, will have the effect of contributing to the global perception of the quality of the vehicle. In view of this, we are interested in the audification of an embedded system like an on- board computer (here called a multimedia center), allowing navigation in an information structure that is an part of the vehicle (functioning, navigation, etc.), includes personal data (music, photos, etc.) and mainly uses the auditory modality to leave the driver with all the concentration required by the driving situation. Integrated in a scientific approach, this study will focus on three main phases: 1. analysis: includes a phase involving the construction of a state of the art device leading to the definition of functional specifications and the choice of design method; 2. creation: this phase is associated with a sound composer/designer, the realization of sounds being carried out by implementation of the selected method; 3. validation: this is a phase of evaluation of the result on the basis of ad-hoc methodology and in relation to the initial specifications. This chapter presents this approach by giving details of the different stages of the process. After a presentation of the general context and the issue specific to the targeted application, the bibliographical study provides elements of state of the art that have enabled us to define an original design model. Then, after a summary of the approaches and methodological constraints relating to the experimentation in the domain of sound perception, the evaluation results of the model are discussed. In the conclusion, a discussion is opened regarding the general form of the results obtained, as well as the different possible axes to extend this work.