Evaluation of Signal Features used for Impact Localization on a Center Console with Piezoceramic Sensors

Smart components are increasingly of interest inresearch and industry due to their wide range of applications. Anexample of this is a current project of the Federal ExcellenceCluster MERGE, which is concerned with the development of acenter console that serves as a control element in an automobileand is executing actions by touching it. In order to facilitate thisfunctionality, it is necessary to evaluate the electrical signalsgenerated by piezoceramic sensors regarding to the localizationof the impact. In this respect, various signal features areinvestigated for their suitability using a support vector machine.The results show that an impact localization can be realized bythe energetic consideration of the signals but has limitations inthe practical usability.

Estimation of Driver’s Danger Level when Accessing the Center Console for Safe Driving

This paper proposes a system for estimating the level of danger when a driver accesses the center console of a vehicle while driving. The proposed system uses a driver monitoring platform to measure the distance between the driver’s hand and the center console during driving, as well as the time taken for the driver to access the center console. Three infrared sensors on the center console are used to detect the movement of the driver’s hand. These sensors are installed in three locations: the air conditioner or heater (temperature control) button, wind direction control button, and wind intensity control button. A driver’s danger level is estimated to be based on a linear regression analysis of the distance and time of movement between the driver’s hand and the center console, as measured in the proposed scenarios. In the experimental results of the proposed scenarios, the root mean square error of driver H using distance and time of movement between the driver’s hand and the center console is 0.0043, which indicates the best estimation of a driver’s danger level.

The Impacts of Touchscreen and Physical Control Interface Characteristics on Driver Distraction and Attention Management

Breakthroughs in interface technologies has encouraged automaker to increasingly replace physical control elements with touchscreens for the center console interface. Whereas the physical elements provide natural haptic and auditory cues supporting interactions even when they are not visually attended to, touchscreen interactions necessitate visual attention because there is not much to feel on the flat screen. Therefore, in-vehicle touchscreens may lead drivers to divert more glances to the touchscreen and away from the roadway, possibly resulting in greater time with eyes off the road and serious safety concerns (Fitch et al., 2013; Olson, Hanowski, Hickman, & Bocanegra, 2009).

Understanding Customer Needs in Designing Automotive Center Consoles

This paper presents results of two studies conducted to determine customer needs in designing future center console designs for automotive products. The first study involved an observational survey of 150 vehicles in three parking lots to determine what items people store in their vehicles and the item locations. The data obtained from the survey provided a list of all the stored items, their distribution and their locations inside the vehicle. Papers, bottles, cups, books, bags and sunglasses were most frequently observed items in the vehicles. The second study was conducted to determine storage preferences of items in the center console. A foam-core center console with velcro surfaces was built inside a minivan. Thirty-six drivers were asked to select items that they would carry most often in their vehicles and place them on the center console surfaces. The resulting layouts of stored items were summarized. The summary data were provided to four teams of industrial design and engineering students to create design concepts for future automotive center consoles.

An Experimental Evaluation of Using Automotive HUDs to Reduce Driver Distraction While Answering Cell Phones

To examine strategies for reducing driver distraction while answering the phone, 24 participants answered calls while driving a simulator. Calls were answered using a center-console-mounted phone or one of several phone designs which utilized a HUD to display the caller ID and steering-wheel-mounted buttons to activate the phone. Driving workload was manipulated by varying the curve radius and by varying the timing of the call, either 1 second before or 5 seconds after the start of a curve. The HUD-based phones resulted in response times that were 39 percent faster than the conventional center-console phone, and they resulted in up to 62 percent fewer line crossings. Additionally, when using the center-console phone, road curvature had a large influence on response times and driving performance; however, the HUD-based phone were less sensitive to increased road curvature or driving workload.

Implications of Modularity on Product Design for the Life Cycle

Growing concern for the environment has spurred interest in product Design for the Life Cycle (DFLC) which encompasses all aspects of a product’s life cycle from initial conceptual design, through normal product use, to the eventual disposal of the product. A product’s architecture, determined during the configuration design stage, plays a large role in determining its life cycle characteristics. In this paper, modularity of product architectures with respect to life cycle concerns, not just functionality and structure, is defined and applied in the analysis of architecture characteristics. An architecture decomposition algorithm from the literature is adopted for partitioning architectures into modules from each life cycle viewpoint. Two measures of modularity are proposed: one that measures module correspondence between several viewpoints, and another that measures coupling between modules. The algorithm and measures are applied to the analysis and redesign of an automotive center console. Results of applying the algorithm and measures accurately reflected our intuitive understanding of the original center console design and predicted the results of our redesign. Furthermore, these measures incorporate only configuration information of the product, hence, can be used before detailed design stages.

An Approach to Virtual Prototyping for Product Disassembly

An important aspect of Design for the Life Cycle is assessing the disassemblability of products. A product designed for disassembly can be quickly and easily broken down so its components can be recycled or refurbished. The use of virtual prototyping is proposed to aid the assessment of product disassembly by enabling the designer to virtually disassemble the product. A virtual prototype is a model of a product and a process that the product undergoes. Virtual prototyping is defined as the generation of a virtual prototype and its simulation or assessment. Factors involved in generating product disassembly processes include: determining the disassembly sequence of a product, the disassembly paths of components, tool change sequences, etc. In recent years, disassembly processes have been generated either by using interactive or automated approaches, but these have limitations. However, by combining the two approaches, disassembly processes of complex assemblies can be generated without extensive user input. This type of interaction can be facilitated by using virtual prototyping. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the development of a virtual environment that will support the generation of virtual prototypes for evaluating product disassembly. Issues involved in transformation of CAD models to virtual prototypes for disassembly are also discussed. Application to an automotive center console is illustrated.