Ambient Storytelling for Vehicle Driver Interaction

Ambient Storytelling for Vehicle Driver Interaction

The USC Mobile and Environmental Media Lab developed a personalized contextual interactive system centered on the unique relationships that exist between individual vehicles and their drivers. Such a system addresses traditional onboard vehicular interface use cases of wayfinding, efficiency monitoring, and handset media player connectivity within the context of an adaptive playful and social narrative engagement. By storing and analyzing in real-time both in-car sensor data and extra-vehicular contextual information regarding user milestones, driving patterns, and proximity to other users or relevant geospatial nodes, vehicles equipped with our system can offer their drivers a range of visualizations, procedurally curated media archives, and playful experiences tailor-made to their unique usage and engagement profiles.


Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, our system is designed to analyze not only the ways that drivers engage with space, media, and other drivers, but also the ways in which drivers choose (or refuse) to engage with the system itself. This iterative feedback loop between vehicle and driver creates an increasingly customized and granular palette of interactions and behaviors that constitute a unique, emergent, and constantly-evolving “character” for the vehicle. Finally, by storing user profile and vehicle character parameters in the cloud, the system can be accessed via a variety of onboard and extra-vehicular interfaces, including touchscreen devices, laptops, and smart phones, extending the vehicle-driver relationship beyond the confines of the cockpit.

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Project Date:   2011-2015

Sponsors: 

  • BMW

Team: 

  • Michael Annetta
  • Jacob Boyle
  • Thomas Cross
  • Emily Duff
  • Cecilia Fletcher
  • Joshua McVeigh-Schultz
  • Jen Stein
  • Avimaan Syam
  • Amanda Tasse
  • Jeff Watson
  • Simon Wiscombe

Advisors: 

  • Scott Fisher

Associated Publications: 

  • Extending the Life Log to Non-human Subjects: Ambient Storytelling for Human-Object Relationships (PDF)
  • Vehicular Lifelogging for Ambient Storytelling and Contextually Rich Play (PDF)
  • Vehicular Lifelogging: New Contexts and Methodologies for Human-Car Interaction (PDF)
  • Ambient Storytelling for Vehicle-Driver Interaction (PDF)