Inspection of In-Vehicle Touchscreen Infotainment Display for Different Screen Locations, Menu Types, and Positions

There has been a rapid increase in ‘In-vehicle touchscreens’ usage over the last decade, particularly for information and entertainment functions. And because of the dynamic interface functionality, the touchscreen becomes a major attraction for the automobile industry. As a result, today most car manufacturer uses touchscreen instead of static push buttons. For display screen locations, there have been two legacy display locations in the car. One is a ‘Head-up display’ and ‘Head-down display’. The head-up display is similar to jet plans mounted on top of the instrument panel board and head-down display - located on the car console. However, the HUD position won't work for touchscreen devices since the touchscreen required direct touch input from the driver for which the HUD location either blocks the road view or is out of the driver's reach. Besides, there are numbers of possibilities for HDD locations to enhance driver’s interaction and driving experience.

In the research study, we are evaluating 8 different possible “in-vehicle touch-screen designs”. (2 HDD locations for touch screen display- Top & Middle, 2 different main menu layouts- Horizontal & Vertical, 2 screen mount positions- Fixed screen vs Tilted screen according to user preference). The study focused on assessing possibilities for different HDD locations within proximity of the driver. This experiment aims to find the most effective and efficient touchscreen position with the least possible discomfort and distraction. Participants were instructed to perform a series of different Music, A/C, Seat control tasks on the developed In-vehicle infotainment prototype in the experiment. The experiment tasks were focused on controlled and real-life task-based scenarios.