Effective control of a car driver's attention for visual and acoustic guidance towards the direction of imminent dangers

In cars, Augmented Reality is becoming an interesting means to enhance active safety in the driving task. Guiding a driver's attention to an imminent danger somewhere around the car is a potential application. In a research project with the automotive industry, we are exploring different approaches towards alerting drivers to such dangers. First results were presented last year. We have extended two of these approaches. One uses AR to visualize the source of danger in the driver's frame of reference while the other one presents information in a bird's eye schematic map. Our extensions were the incorporation of a real Head-up Display, improved visual perception and acoustic support. Both schemes were evaluated both with and without 3D encoded sound. This paper reports on a user test in which 24 participants provided objective and subjective measurements. The results indicate that the AR-based three-dimensional presentation scheme with and without sound support systematically outperforms the bird's eye schematic map.