Exploring floating stereoscopic driver-car interfaces with wide field-of-view in a mixed reality simulation

In this paper, we propose a floating, multi-layered, wide field-of-view user interface for car drivers. It utilizes stereoscopic depth and focus blurring to highlight items with high priority or urgency. Individual layers are additionally used to separate groups of UI elements according to importance or context. Our work is motivated by two main prospects: a fundamentally changing driver-car interaction and ongoing technology advancements for mixed reality devices. A working prototype has been implemented as part of a custom driving simulation and will be further extended. We plan evaluations in contexts ranging from manual to fully automated driving, providing context-specific suggestions. We want to determine user preferences for layout and prioritization of the UI elements, perceived quality of the interface and effects on driving performance.