My car as an interactive computing environment: Supporting non-driving-related activities
Bastian Pfleging
Friday, April 29, 2016, 2 PM
Kingsbury S320
Abstract. Today, driving a modern car is much more than sitting in a vehicle to get to a distant location. Drivers face the challenge to simultaneously maneuver the car but also operate in-car computer systems. They perform non-driving-related activities such as adjusting the air conditioning, selecting the next playlist, or communicate with family and friends. Performing such activities while driving a car often distracts the driver and puts the driver and the environment at risk. Providing car user interfaces that offer safe, diverse, exciting, and easy-to-use means to perform a multitude of non-driving-related activities is thus a challenge for research and development. Especially with the transition towards assisted and automated driving the car will turn into a “computing platform, living room, and office on wheels”. Here, enabling non-driving-related activities becomes even more important and their support will be crucial for commercial success. In my talk, I will present examples on how to support the design and development of automotive user interfaces that enable safe non-driving-related activities. This includes interfaces to improve driving safety while communicating and understanding the driver’s state.
Bio. Bastian Pfleging is a senior researcher at the Human-Machine Interaction Group at the University of Munich (LMU), Germany. His research interests are automotive user interfaces, with a focus on multimodal interaction and the support of non-driving-related activities in the car (e.g., communication). Before joining LMU Munich, he was a researcher and PhD student at the Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems at the University of Stuttgart. From 2010 to 2011 Bastian was a visiting researcher at the BMW Technology Office USA in California. He holds a Diploma in Computer Science from TU Dortmund, Germany.
In the HCI community, Bastian is involved in many scientific activities. This includes co-organizing different conferences, including AutomotiveUI (Work-in-Progress & Demo Chair, Publication Chair), MobileHCI, and Augmented Human. Additionally, he co-organizes various workshops (e.g., Workshop on Automotive Natural User Interfaces, Workshop on Practical Experiences in Measuring and Modeling Drivers and Driver-Vehicle Interaction, both co-located with AutomotiveUI). Also, he serves as reviewer or member of the program committee for various HCI-related journals, magazines, conferences, and workshops.