Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Tactile Wayfinder: Comparison of Tactile Waypoint Navigation with Commercial Pedestrian Navigation Systems

  • Conference paper
Pervasive Computing (Pervasive 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 6030))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

In this paper we report on a field study comparing a commercial pedestrian navigation system to a tactile navigation system called Tactile Wayfinder. Similar to previous approaches the Tactile Wayfinder uses a tactile torso display to present the directions of a route’s waypoints to the user. It advances those approaches by conveying the location of the next two waypoints rather than the next one only, so the user already knows how the route continues when reaching a waypoint. Using a within-subjects design, fourteen participants navigated along two routes in a busy city centre with the Tactile Wayfinder and a commercial pedestrian navigation system. We measured the acquisition of spatial knowledge, the level of attention the participants had to devote to the navigation task, and the navigation performance. We found that the Tactile Wayfinder freed the participants’ attention but could not keep up with the navigation system in terms of navigation performance. No significant difference was found in the acquisition of spatial knowledge. Instead, a good general sense of direction was highly correlated with good spatial knowledge acquisition and a good navigation performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Aslan, I., Schwalm, M., Baus, J., Krüger, A., Schwartz, T.: Acquisition of spatial knowledge in location aware mobile pedestrian navigation systems. In: MobileHCI 2006: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services, pp. 105–108. ACM, New York (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Bosman, S., Groenendaal, B., Findlater, J.W., Visser, T., de Graaf, M., Markopoulos, P.: Gentleguide: An exploration of haptic output for indoors pedestrian guidance. In: MobileHCI 2003: Proceedings of the 5th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brewster, S., Brown, L.M.: Tactons: structured tactile messages for non-visual information display. In: AUIC 2004: Proceedings of the fifth conference on Australasian user interface, Darlinghurst, Australia, pp. 15–23. Australian Computer Society, Inc. (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Brown, L.M., Brewster, S.A., Purchase, H.C.: A first investigation into the effectiveness of tactons. In: WHC 2005: Proceedings of the First Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 167–176. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Brown, L.M., Brewster, S.A., Purchase, H.C.: Multidimensional tactons for non-visual information presentation in mobile devices. In: MobileHCI 2006: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services, pp. 231–238. ACM, New York (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Duistermaat, M., Elliot, L.R., van Erp, J.B.F., Redden, E.S.: Tactile land navigation for dismounted soldiers. In: Human factor issues in complex system performance, pp. 43–53. Shaker Publishing, Maastricht (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Goodman, J., Gray, P., Khammampad, K., Brewster, S.: Using landmarks to support older people in navigation. In: Brewster, S., Dunlop, M.D. (eds.) Mobile HCI 2004. LNCS, vol. 3160, pp. 38–48. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hart, S., Staveland, L.: Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. In: Human Mental Workload, pp. 139–183. North Holland, Amsterdam (1988)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Hegarty, M., Richardson, A.E., Montello, D.R., Lovelace, K., Subbiah, I.: Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability. Intelligence 30, 425–447 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Heuten, W., Henze, N., Boll, S., Pielot, M.: Tactile wayfinder: A non-visual support system for wayfinding. In: NordiCHI (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Ishikawa, T., Fujiwara, H., Imai, O., Okabe, A.: Wayfinding with a gps-based mobile navigation system: A comparison with maps and direct experience. Journal of Environmental Psychology 28(1), 74–82 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kane, S.K., Wobbrock, J.O., Smith, I.E.: Getting off the treadmill: evaluating walking user interfaces for mobile devices in public spaces. In: MobileHCI 2008: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services, pp. 109–118. ACM, New York (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Kray, C., Elting, C., Laakso, K., Coors, V.: Presenting route instructions on mobile devices. In: IUI 2003: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces, pp. 117–124. ACM, New York (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Lawton, C.A.: Gender differences in way-finding strategies: Relationship to spatial ability and spatial anxiety. Sex Roles 30(11-12), 765–779 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Leshed, G., Velden, T., Rieger, O., Kot, B., Sengers, P.: In-car gps navigation: engagement with and disengagement from the environment. In: CHI 2008: Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 1675–1684. ACM, New York (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Lindeman, R.W., Sibert, J.L., Mendez-Mendez, E., Patil, S., Phifer, D.: Effectiveness of directional vibrotactile cuing on a building-clearing task. In: CHI 2005: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 271–280. ACM, New York (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. May, A.J., Ross, T., Bayer, S.H., Tarkiainen, M.J.: Pedestrian navigation aids: information requirements and design implications. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 7(6), 331–338 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Pielot, M., Henze, N., Boll, S.: Supporting map-based wayfinding with tactile cues. In: MobileHCI 2009: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, pp. 1–10. ACM, New York (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Ross, D.A., Blasch, B.B.: Wearable interfaces for orientation and wayfinding. In: Assets 2000: Proceedings of the fourth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, pp. 193–200. ACM, New York (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Rukzio, E., Müller, M., Hardy, R.: Design, implementation and evaluation of a novel public display for pedestrian navigation: the rotating compass. In: CHI 2009: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 113–122. ACM, New York (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Rukzio, E., Schmidt, A., Krüger, A.: The rotating compass: a novel interaction technique for mobile navigation. In: CHI 2005: CHI 2005 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 1761–1764. ACM, New York (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Smets, N.J.J.M., te Brake, G.M., Neerincx, M.A., Lindenberg, J.: Effects of mobile map orientation and tactile feedback on navigation speed and situation awareness. In: MobileHCI 2008: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services, pp. 73–80. ACM, New York (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Tan, H.Z., Pentland, A.: Tactual displays for wearable computing. In: ISWC 1997: Proceedings of the 1st IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Washington, DC, USA, p. 84. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Tsukada, K., Yasumura, M.: Activebelt: Belt-type wearable tactile display for directional navigation. In: Davies, N., Mynatt, E.D., Siio, I. (eds.) UbiComp 2004. LNCS, vol. 3205, pp. 384–399. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  25. van Erp, J.B.F.: Presenting directions with a vibrotactile torso display. Ergonomics 48, 302–313 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. van Erp, J.B.F.: Tactile Displays for Navigation and Orientation: Perception and Behavior. PhD thesis, Leiden, The Netherlands (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  27. van Erp, J.B.F., van Veen, H.A.H.C., Jansen, C., Dobbins, T.: Waypoint navigation with a vibrotactile waist belt. ACM Trans. Appl. Percept. 2(2), 106–117 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. van Veen, H.A.H.C., Spap, M., Van Erp, J.B.F.: Waypoint navigation on land: Different ways of coding distance to the next waypoint. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference EuroHaptics 2004 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Wichmann, D., Pielot, M., Boll, S.: Companion platform - modular software platform for rapid development of mobile applications. It - Information Technology 51(2), 72–78 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Wickens, C.: Multiple resources and performance prediction. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science 3(2), 159–177 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Wickens, C.D.: Processing resources in attention. In: Processing resource in attention. Academic, London (1984)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. OFFIS Institute for Information Technology, Germany

    Martin Pielot & Susanne Boll

Authors
  1. Martin Pielot
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susanne Boll
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Helsinki Institute for Information Technology – HIIT, Department of Computer Science,, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, 00014, Finland

    Patrik Floréen

  2. German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3, 66123, SaarbrĂĽcken, Germany

    Antonio KrĂĽger

  3. Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Mirjana Spasojevic

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Pielot, M., Boll, S. (2010). Tactile Wayfinder: Comparison of Tactile Waypoint Navigation with Commercial Pedestrian Navigation Systems. In: Floréen, P., Krüger, A., Spasojevic, M. (eds) Pervasive Computing. Pervasive 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6030. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12654-3_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12654-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12653-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12654-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation