Testing the Cognitive Load of Gesture Interaction on Drivers When Performing Tertiary Tasks

Abstract: With the development of the car industry, more and more electronic devices have been used in automobiles in order to provide greater functionality and improve the driving experience. However, performing tertiary tasks such as changing songs on an in-car mp3 player or resetting a navigation system while driving increases visual interaction and cognitive load for drivers. In order to provide drivers a better interactive control, different kinds of control modalities such as touch display and gesture control have been developed, yet no research has been done in terms of reducing users’ cognitive load. This paper hypothesizes that using air gesture control to perform secondary tasks will reduce driver’s cognitive load. An experiment will be performed with a driving simulator to compare the cognitive load on a driver among a new gesture-based interface, a multi-touch based interface, and a tactile interface. Cognitive load will be measured through the change of the pupil diameter of the driver and gathered via a remote eye tracking system. The effectiveness, efficiency, and the users’ satisfaction towards each interface will be measured.

Keywords: Gesture Interaction, Cognitive Load, Multi Touch Interface

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100660

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