Feeling Uncertain: Effects of Encoding Uncertainty in the Tactile Communication of a Spatiotemporal Feature
T. Driessen (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
J. C.F. Winter – Mentor (TU Delft - Human-Robot Interaction)
Dimitra Dodou – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology)
Pavlo Bazilinskyy – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Human-Robot Interaction)
Matti Krüger – Graduation committee member (Honda Research Institute Europe)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
An appropriate understanding of a machine's competences may be critical for safe use. Sharing measures of real-time function reliability could help users to adjust their reliance on machine capabilities. We designed a vibrotactile interface that communicates spatiotemporal information about surrounding events and further encodes a representation of spatial uncertainty. We evaluated this interface in a driving simulator experiment with varying levels of machine confidence linked to a simulated degradation of sensor signal quality and varying levels of human confidence induced through a degradation of visual feedback. A comparison between variants of the system indicated positive performance effects of providing uncertain information compared to a more conservative solution that only provided information above a specific confidence level. Subjective reports revealed a positive acceptance of uncertainty signaling in low-visibility conditions, comparable to acceptance ratings of a fully confident machine that accurately signaled the precise location of events.