Provision of haptic/tactile information by a vehicle steering interface

Recently new conceptual intelligent vehicles equipped with computers and sensors for improving safety are developed. These vehicles have additional functions such as object detection and autonomous locomotion. To make full use of these functions, information devices with various modal interfaces are necessary. In this study, we propose a new conceptual haptic/tactile interface. The proposed interface provides drivers with supportive information in addition to dynamics information by overlapping vibrotactile reaction force to conventional reaction force. To construct the prototype system, examinations of the cognitive characteristics of vibrotactile reaction force were conducted. The constructed prototype of system was compared with other modal devices in order to check the effectiveness of the system.