School of Technology

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Safety for Older Drivers When Driving

Dr Mary Zajicek

2Mary Zajicek – Advanced Interfaces Group www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

Enabling older adults to drive safelyand enjoyably for longer

Matching speech messages to driver’s personality.

Gossiping cars!

Cars that know who you are andwhat you would like!

Cars warning you ofproblems ahead!

Virtual passengers!

3Mary Zajicek – Advanced Interfaces Group www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

The Oxford CARSITE Project In-Car Speech Messages for Older People

• Dr Mary Zajicek, The Advanced Interfaces Group, Oxford Brookes University - http://cms.brookes.ac.uk/computing/research/advancedinterfaces/index.htm

• Dr Ing-Marie Jonsson at Department of Communication, Stanford University, CA and Toyota Information Technology Centre, Palo Alto, US

• CARSITE (Communication in Automobiles: Research on Safety, Information Technology, and Enjoyment), a programme which investigates how in-car speech messages can make driving safer and more enjoyable for older people.

• Most experimental work using a STISim driving simulator.

4Mary Zajicek – Advanced Interfaces Group www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

Experimental set up for the driving simulator

Car Seat. Pedals and

Steering wheel.

Audio and Video Data

Data Physiological

sensors.

Driving Performance

Date: automatically collected by

STISim

5Mary Zajicek – Advanced Interfaces Group www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

The STISim Driving Simulator

6Mary Zajicek – Advanced Interfaces Group www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

Investigations

Differences between older adults and younger people:• Preferred voice – young/old• Importance of context• Openess to route suggestions

Virtual passenger

Differences in people type• Introvert v Extrovert

7Mary Zajicek – Advanced Interfaces Group www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

Example experiment

Do older adults and younger people prefer a different voice type?

• Subjects gender balanced 18 in each group

• Measure emotional state before driving the simulator

• Drive for approx 30 mins set route

• Measure emotional state after driving

• Measure driving safety

• Look for less degeneration in emotional state and increased driving safety