The Haptic steering Wheel: Vibro-tactile based navigation for the driving environment

Over the past few years, several studies have been made on haptic devices that help people focus on driving and increase safety. In this paper, we propose a vibro-tactile based display on a steering wheel named ¿The Haptic Wheel¿, which is embedded with 32 linear actuators to present tactile information such as ¿Alert¿, ¿Turn left¿ and ¿Turn right¿. This information is coded with spatial and temporal patterns, resulting in the transfer of information regardless of the holding gesture and the number of hands gripping the steering wheel. This noble interface allows users to get information through the physical contact of the driver´s palm, a part of the body that is free from objects such as clothes or shoes. We conducted an experiment to evaluate three proposed stimuli modes with no tactile illusion, phantom illusion or sensory saltation. Experimental results show that the influence of design parameters of which had greater differences for transferring navigation information. This study gives a meaningful indication that employing the tactile display on the steering wheel can give directional information to the driver.