Haptic DestinationPointer

We have seen the Haptic WayPointer which enables the user to explore the place and navigate to the destination rather than getting to destination following the shortest route in the shortest possible time. At times, the user needs to be assured about the general heading towards the destination and the user makes judgements about which route to take.

The Haptic DestinationPointer is a prototype designed to partially help the user explore (like Haptic WayPointer ) the place while assisting them to navigate to the destination.

This allows the user to “explore a place” and still not get completely lost or wander away too far from the destination. At any location the user selects their destination and they are alerted when they are pointing in the correct direction of the destination.

The user then makes a judgement as to how to start walking based on the pathways in front of them. After being instructed as to the initial direction of destination, it is the user’s responsibility to request feedback along their route when in doubt. The user can divert off route as they please and are not forced to follow a particular path via continuous feedback as seen in Haptic Navigator nor are they direction along the initial walking direction of the shortest path from the current location.

The user is initially at an origin point, O which is at a distance d from the destination, D. The shortest path between origin, O and destination, D is stored as a line string L (Figure 69). The bearing from the origin to the destination location, D is b₀. The user scans the area (Figure 58) and is alerted by a unique vibration pattern when the user is pointing in the correct direction (Figure 63) that they need to start walking to reach the destination. The sequence of actions at the initial origin location (Figure 69) where

Figure 69: Haptic DestinationPointer: prototype using the ‘point towards destination’

technique.

there are various roads origination from the user’s current location but is alerted when pointing in the direction of the destination which is not necessarily is the direction along the shortest path. This is similar to work by (Robinson et al., 2010b) who feel that users should have opportunities to “explore place while trying to get to their destination”.

Haptic feedback provides the direction to destination and the straight line distance to the destination information.

Three distance zones are created based on the distance between current user location (origin, O) and the destination (Figure 70). So for the distance, d, the three distance zones that are created are

• Near (zone between Current location to distance ^d₃ meters),

• Far (zone between ^d₃ to ^2d₃ meters) and

• Very Far (zone between ^d₃ to d meters).

Figure 70: Haptic DestinationPointer: prototype using the ‘point towards initial way-point’ technique.

Vibration pattern and frequency similar to Figure 53 is used by the Haptic Destina-tionPointer prototype to convey distance information to the user when pointing in the right direction (FOH) of destination. If the user is very far away (zone between Current location to distance ^d₃ meters) from the destination D, the user is provided information by high frequency vibration feedback with a distinct pattern of short duration (300ms each). Vibration of medium frequency is provided if the user is far away (zone between

d

3 to ^2d₃ meters) from the Destination (D), and a different vibration pattern of low fre-quency is used to represent distances when the user is very close (zone between ^2d₃ to d meters). The varying pattern and frequency of the vibration alarm (Figure 53) is used to provide distance information to the user. When the user is within a short buffer distance B from the destination, continuous vibrations alert the user of reaching their destination/POI.

To validate the Haptic DestinationPointer, three routes were chosen which had three different levels of complexity based on the origin and destination chosen and the

fre-Figure 71: Simple route navigated using Haptic DestinationPointer.

quency of turns/change in direction along the path. Figure 71 represents a simple path which had very little deviations/intersections to confuse the user regarding the best path. Hence the user took the path exactly similar to the path as provided by the routing service using the OpenStreetMap data (OpenStreetMap, 2012). The user got to the destination faster while using Haptic DestinationPointer as the user did not need to interact with the visual interface to check for route description and thus could walk faster.

Figure 72 represents a moderately complex path which has more deviations/intersections and thus the user had to make judgements regarding the best path from certain way-points. The path had lots of straights and turns and here the user took a path almost similar to the shortest path as given by the routing service. The time taken by the user while using Haptic DestinationPointer is less than as mentioned by the routing service as the user did not need to interact with the visual interface to check for route description and thus could walk faster along straight roads.

Figure 72: Moderately complex route navigated using Haptic DestinationPointer.

Figure 73: Very complex route navigated using Haptic DestinationPointer.

Figure 73 represents a complex path which has lots of deviations/intersections and in-volves the dense urban environment. Thus the user had to make judgements regarding the best path from certain waypoints and points during the trip. The path had lots of straights and turns and was in between dense streets with tall buildings. The user took a path completely different from the shortest path provided by the routing service. The time taken by the user was longer while using Haptic DestinationPointer. The main benefit here is that the user did not need to interact with the visual interface to check for route description and thus could walk faster avoiding obstacles and other pedestrians.

The Haptic DestinationPointer provides ‘direct to destination’ navigation assistance from origin using a non-visual feedback technique. In situations when the user prefers to ‘explore a place’ and only wants to know the general heading information towards the destination, Haptic DestinationPointer is the ideal prototype to use. The key fea-tures/functionalities of this prototype:

• Works using the ‘point-to-destination’ navigation assistance technique.

• Provides assistance when expecting general heading information towards destina-tion.

• Phone is held in the hand for performing the scanning operation when at points along the trip the users wish to reassure themselves of the direction towards des-tination.

• Does not require user attention while walking as they are in ‘explore mode’ and so will only need to query when in doubt.

• Ensures faster walking speed in the general direction of destination.

• Feedback only when pointing in the direction of the destination from any point in the path.

From the above four prototypes we saw how haptic feedback can be integrated in dif-ferent ways to suit various user contexts and need of information. Haptic feedback for pedestrian navigation is useful to provide simple, subtle information which along with complex detailed information via visual interfaces can help users navigate all kinds of environments very easily.