Spatial Presentation of Earcons as Indicators of Automated Vehicle Performance
Simulator Driver’s View
Abstract: In this project, we seek to prove the importance of abstract audio icons, or “earcons”, in increase comfort and trust among passenger’s of autonomous vehicles. Building on the existing multi-channel audio engine written in the Faust programming language, we outfit the Stanford Driving Simulator with four internal high-quality speakers. Earcons are designed through an iterative process to serve as indicators of the car’s understanding of specific events in the world. The forthcoming study will examine the spatial presentation of these earcons in a way that directly corresponds to the position of the events themselves. Comfort, trust, and other subjective emotional measures will be recorded in conditions with icons are and are not correlated with real-world events.
Nick Gang 