Head-up Displays (HUD) in driving

Head Up Displays (HUDs) were designed originally to present at the usual viewpoints of the pilot the main sensor data during aircraft missions, because of placing instrument information in the forward field of view enhances pilots ability to utilize both instrument and environmental information simultaneously. The first civilian motor vehicle had a monochrome HUD that was released in 1988 by General Motors as a technological improvement of HeadDown Display (HDD) interface, which is commonly used in automobile industry. The HUD reduces the number and duration of the drivers sight deviations from the road, by projecting the required information directly into the drivers line of vision. There are many studies about ways of presenting the information: standard oneearpiece presentation, threedimensional audio presentation, visual only or audiovisual presentation. Results have shown that using a 3D auditory display the time of acquiring targets is approximately 2.2 seconds faster than using a oneearpiece way. Nevertheless, a disadvantage is when the drivers attention unconsciously shifts away from the road and goes focused on processing the information presented by the HUD. By this reason, the time, the way and the channel are important to represent the information on a HUD. A solution is a context aware multimodal proactive recommended system that features personalized content combined with the use of car sensors to determine when the information has to be presented.