Return to the archive index

was: Alternatives to the P5 is: driving and using

From: "Greg E. Priest-Dorman" <>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:10:26 -0500

I have been using an audio output wearable for some time now
(emacspeak).  Even so, driving and doing some other task is not a good
idea.  I saw a blurb stating that cell phone users are involved in as
many car accidents as drunk drivers - dwi (driving with impariment?)
I am not sure where I heard that (nando or buisness week perhaps) and
would be intersted in any leads to and actual quote or statistic.

That being said, here are some observations from someone who gets
input while driving:

I find I read at a slower pace, I go from ~500wpm to ~320wpm or even
~280wpm when driving.

I choise tasks that do not require much input from me (pasive
listening to a set of preselected web pages, notes or text punctuated
with apointment remiders is typical).

I often end up reading the meterial twice, because I know that I am
giving preference to the task of driving.

About 2 years ago the rear view mirror cracked in our car.  Although
the same information was being presented, it was several months before
the slight discontenuity introduced by the crack was not a
distraction.  I would be very carful about introducing extra meterial
into the visual field while driving.

I urge folks considering information delivery while doing tasks to
exploit other modailties rather than overlapping sensory input.
Emacspeak is a very nice way to go for text-to-speech. There is a
PC104 version of the doubletalk card, I am not sure what needs to
happen with the doubletalk driver to make it suport the PC104 version
of the card.  I have written the individual who wrote the driver and
if folks are interested I will post the results.

Greg

--
 Greg Priest-Dorman
       NO SOLICITING

Previous Message in Thread | Next Message in Thread

From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH)
Maintained by R. Paul McCarty

Archive created with babymail