An evaluation of the influence of haptic feedback on gaze behavior during in-car interaction with touch screens

A major motivation for the introduction of haptic feedback in in-vehicle touch screens is the reduction of the eyes-off-road time. This paper presents a study which compares different feedback conditions for touch screen interaction: (1) visual feedback, (2) combined visual-haptic feedback, and (3) haptic feedback only. Subjects had to select target buttons on a touch screen during simulated driving. Our results show that haptic feedback significantly reduces the eyes-off-road time and the subjectively perceived workload. When visual content is available, gazes on the touch screen are more frequent than necessary. And even in the absence of visual content, complete eyes-free interaction was only occasionally spotted, and subjects still looked at the screen initially. We assume that this is due to the necessity of an initial reference position.