Matching Items (2)
Description
This document introduces the need for the Rest Egg system and defines an accessible method of smartphone integration. Excessive noise can prevent recovering patients and special needs persons from resting correctly. The Rest Egg was designed for these people- people who are in critical need of quality rest but are often unable to eliminate stressors themselves. This system ensures their environment is calm by alerting caretakers' smartphones if noise reaches abrasive levels. Smartphones were the preferred device due to the wide spread of such devices in today's market. After making open sourcing a goal, something ubiquitous and affordable \u2014 yet usable and dependable \u2014 was necessary for the alert system. These requirements lead to the election an online alert service: Pushover, a trademark and product of Superblock, LLC.
ContributorsJennings, Tyler Blake (Author) / Goryll, Michael (Thesis director) / Kozicki, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Proper allocation of attention while driving is imperative to driver safety, as well as the safety of those around the driver. There is no doubt that in-vehicle alerts can effectively direct driver attention. In fact, visual, auditory, and tactile alert modalities have all shown to be more effective than no alert at all. However, research on in-vehicle alerts has primarily been limited to single-hazard scenarios. The current research examines the effects of in-vehicle alert modality on driver attention towards simultaneously occurring hazards. When a driver is presented with multiple stimuli simultaneously, there is the risk that they will experience alert masking, when one stimulus is obscured by the presence of another stimulus. As the number of concurrent stimuli increases, the ability to report targets decreases. Meanwhile, the alert acts as another target that they must also process. Recent research on masking effects of simultaneous alerts has shown masking to lead to breakdowns in detection and identification of alarms during a task, outlining a possible cost of alert technology. Additionally, existing work has shown auditory alerts to be more effective in directing driver attention, resulting in faster reaction times (RTs) than visual alerts. Multiple Resource Theory suggests that because of the highly visual nature of driving, drivers may have more auditory resources than visual resources available to process stimuli without becoming overloaded. Therefore, it was predicted that auditory alerts would be more effective in allowing drivers to recognize both potential hazards, measured though reduced brake reaction times and increased accuracy during a post-drive hazard observance question. The current study did not support the hypothesis. Modality did not result in a significant difference in drivers’ attention to simultaneously occurring hazards. The salience of hazards in each scenario seemed to make the largest impact on whether participants observed the hazard. Though the hypothesis was not supported, there were several limitations. Additionally, and regardless, the study results did point to the importance of further research on simultaneously occurring hazards. These scenarios pose a risk to drivers, especially when their attention is allocated to only one of the hazards.
ContributorsMcAlphin, Morgan (Author) / Gutzwiller, Robert S (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy (Committee member) / Gray, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023