Mostly passive information delivery in a car

In this study we present and analyze a mostly passive infotainment approach to presenting information in a car. The passive style is similar to radio listening but content is generated on the fly and it is based on a mixture of personal information (calendar, emails) and public data (news, POI, jokes). The spoken part of the audio is machine synthesized. We explore two modes of operation. The first one is passive only. The second one is more interactive and speech commands are used to personalize the information mix and to request particular information items. Usability and distraction tests were conducted with both systems implemented using the Wizard of Oz technique. Both systems were assessed using multiple objective and subjective metrics and the results indicate that driver distraction was low for both systems. The users differed in the amount of interaction they preferred. Some users preferred more command-driven styles while others were happy with passive presentation. Most of the users were satisfied with the quality of synthesized speech and found it sufficient for the given purpose. In addition, feedback was collected from the subjects on what kind of information they liked listening to and how they would have preferred to ask for specific types of information.