Using Hand Gestures To Control Electric Vehicles

Sammanfattning: The automotive industry is now electrifying at a faster rate than ever before. Everything from electric bikes to Segways and electric longboards requires new kinds of interactions to control the engine. For example, Segway has used the user's tilt to decide whether they want to go forward or backward. Electric longboards often use a handheld controller that has a gas button. Now, this electrification is coming to surfboards. The Swedish manufacturer Radinn offers various electric surfboards with a handheld wireless controller to accelerate when pressing a throttle button. However, it is interesting to find out new kinds of interactions for this kind of electric boards. Therefore, we investigated the possibility of using different hand movements as an interaction to control the surfboard. The result was a new gesture controller that controls the board by raising and lowering the hand. By raising the hand, the surfboard accelerates. Lowering the hand lowers the speed. Comparison of the System Usability Scale and NASA Task Load Index scores between the new and old controls showed that the traditional solution is better on virtually all fronts. The difference is believed to be partly due to the physical feedback and limitation that users receive from a traditional controller, but which is lacking when using hand gestures. The master thesis is an initiation for exploring alternative interfaces and provides knowledge of users' surfing behavior and gesture preferences that can be built on to develop the concept further.