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Light My Way: Developing and Exploring a Multimodal Interface to Assist People With Visual Impairments to Exit Highly Automated Vehicles

Luca-Maxim Meinhardt, Lina Weilke, Maryam Elhaidary, Julia von Abel, Paul Fink, Michael Rietzler, Mark Colley, Enrico Rukzio

TL;DR

The paper presents PathFinder, a multimodal interface (visual, tactile, auditory) designed to help blind and visually impaired people safely exit Highly Automated Vehicles in unfamiliar environments. It begins with a participatory workshop (N=5) to identify information needs and evaluate three low-fidelity prototypes, informing the PathFinder design. In a subsequent three-factor within-between-subject study (N=16), PathFinder outperformed an auditory baseline by reducing mental demand while maintaining high perceived safety across urban and rural scenarios, with qualitative data confirming enhanced spatial orientation. The work demonstrates the value of multimodal information for BVIPs during the exit phase of HAV journeys and provides open-source artifacts for replication and future real-world validation.

Abstract

The introduction of Highly Automated Vehicles (HAVs) has the potential to increase the independence of blind and visually impaired people (BVIPs). However, ensuring safety and situation awareness when exiting these vehicles in unfamiliar environments remains challenging. To address this, we conducted an interactive workshop with N=5 BVIPs to identify their information needs when exiting an HAV and evaluated three prior-developed low-fidelity prototypes. The insights from this workshop guided the development of PathFinder, a multimodal interface combining visual, auditory, and tactile modalities tailored to BVIP's unique needs. In a three-factorial within-between-subject study with N=16 BVIPs, we evaluated PathFinder against an auditory-only baseline in urban and rural scenarios. PathFinder significantly reduced mental demand and maintained high perceived safety in both scenarios, while the auditory baseline led to lower perceived safety in the urban scenario compared to the rural one. Qualitative feedback further supported PathFinder's effectiveness in providing spatial orientation during exiting.

Light My Way: Developing and Exploring a Multimodal Interface to Assist People With Visual Impairments to Exit Highly Automated Vehicles

TL;DR

The paper presents PathFinder, a multimodal interface (visual, tactile, auditory) designed to help blind and visually impaired people safely exit Highly Automated Vehicles in unfamiliar environments. It begins with a participatory workshop (N=5) to identify information needs and evaluate three low-fidelity prototypes, informing the PathFinder design. In a subsequent three-factor within-between-subject study (N=16), PathFinder outperformed an auditory baseline by reducing mental demand while maintaining high perceived safety across urban and rural scenarios, with qualitative data confirming enhanced spatial orientation. The work demonstrates the value of multimodal information for BVIPs during the exit phase of HAV journeys and provides open-source artifacts for replication and future real-world validation.

Abstract

The introduction of Highly Automated Vehicles (HAVs) has the potential to increase the independence of blind and visually impaired people (BVIPs). However, ensuring safety and situation awareness when exiting these vehicles in unfamiliar environments remains challenging. To address this, we conducted an interactive workshop with N=5 BVIPs to identify their information needs when exiting an HAV and evaluated three prior-developed low-fidelity prototypes. The insights from this workshop guided the development of PathFinder, a multimodal interface combining visual, auditory, and tactile modalities tailored to BVIP's unique needs. In a three-factorial within-between-subject study with N=16 BVIPs, we evaluated PathFinder against an auditory-only baseline in urban and rural scenarios. PathFinder significantly reduced mental demand and maintained high perceived safety in both scenarios, while the auditory baseline led to lower perceived safety in the urban scenario compared to the rural one. Qualitative feedback further supported PathFinder's effectiveness in providing spatial orientation during exiting.
Paper Structure (50 sections, 4 figures, 4 tables)

This paper contains 50 sections, 4 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Navigation Aids for Visually Impaired People
  4. Needs and Opinions of Visually Impaired People in the Context of Highly Automated Vehicles
  5. Non-visual Interface Development Across the Entire Journey
  6. Initial Low-Fidelity Prototypes
  7. Scenario Design for the Prototypes
  8. Smartphone Prototype
  9. Window Touch Prototype
  10. Tactile Bars Prototype
  11. Interactive Workshop
  12. Procedure
  13. Analysis
  14. Results and Implications
  15. Current Situation to Exit a Vehicle
  16. ...and 35 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Initial low-fidelity prototypes that where used during the interactive workshop
  • Figure 2: Interface design of PathFinder, featuring a compass needle, five obstacle buttons, and a vehicle button. Each obstacle button can extend to indicate an obstacle in the corresponding section, and pressing it triggers additional details via audio announcements. The extended buttons also flash to enhance visibility. The compass needle moves along a rail to continuously point toward the final destination.
  • Figure 3: Sectors for the five Obstacle Buttons of PathFinder for the Urban and Rural Scenario and the Participants' Perspective of the Study Setup. See \ref{['app:audio_announcements']} for the concrete audio announcements
  • Figure 4: Significant effects of the quantitative data for mental demand and perceived safety