TempSeat: Investigating the Suitability of a Heated Car Seat for Feedback Purposes

Thermal cues in the car can be used as an alternative to audio and vibration feedback to lessen the burden on the often overloaded visual channel. This paper presents an investigation of a heated car seat to evaluate the effectiveness of the heating for feedback purposes. The temperature changes of a heated car seat were measured without and with seated passengers to assess the heating capabilities in general and to understand the temperature interaction with a seated person. A user study (N=12) investigated the recognition times during a simulated driving task. Temperature changes during driving simulation were detected on average in under 1min, with an average increase of around 0.33 degrees C on the backrest (0.36 degrees C on seat). These initial results can be used as basis and inspiration for further investigations to lessen the visual channel with thermal cues.