Honks can be really important information sources for drivers. This can be problematic for people that are deaf or if someone is listening to music loudly in the car. One possible solution is to have a visual cue, but driving already relies so much on visual input from the outside world and indicator lights on the dashboard that it would be overwhelming and not very helpful. Because of this, a mechanical notification such as the steering wheel vibrating would be a really helpful alternative. The wheel can vibrate with different frequencies based on the frequency of the honks and this information would be easily passed on to the driver as at least one of their hands would be on the wheel.
Another idea I had was if someone is blind they need to rely on hearing or haptic feedback. Oftentimes I get someones attention by saying something and if they don’t hear me I will wave my hand a couple feet in front of their face. If someone who is blind who’s working on something say on their computer while listening to something would not be notified by either of these actions. I would potentially feel awkward about just walking up to them and tapping their shoulder. If there was a device that they could wear that would tap them for me weather as a watch or armband it would be really useful.
