Mapping of Automotive Vehicle Command Functions to a Subset of Pushbutton Sounds

Automotive environments regularly contain push buttons for initiating a multitude of vehicle command functions. While previous research has been done to develop methods of matching a sound to a button's visual appearance, no work could be found for matching a sound with the command function itself that the button is initiating. A process was developed for mapping multiple vehicle command functions to a reduced number of button sounds. Subjective testing in the form of a sound jury was conducted to identify which types of sounds should be associated with which command functions in order to indicate successful initiation of the intended function. A model for grouping command functions into banks, where each bank is assigned a single sound, was then created for the purpose of reducing the total number of button sounds used in the automotive environment. A preference was found for synthetically generated button sounds over those created by the physical movement of mechanical button switches. Affirmative functions were found to be best matched with either high frequency beeps or beeps that increase in pitch. Negative functions were found to be best matched with either clicks or low frequency beeps that decrease in pitch.