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Total results: 548

The impact of an anticipatory eco-driver assistant system in different complex driving situations on the driver behavior

Year: 2014

Authors: CP Rommerskirchen, M Helmbrecht

The anticipatory advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) developed at the Institute of Ergonomics at the TU München assists to reduce the individual fuel consumption of each driver by anticipating earlier. The goal is to achieve improvements in as many road situations as possible. The paper gives an overview on the different options to support the driver to reduce its fuel consumption. It also discusses the possibilities of an extension of anticipation to support the driver in eco-driving. Related work shows that anticipatory advanced driver assistance systems help to save fuel, but they focus on the general potentials of the system. The presented study in this paper, however, deals with the question of the impact of different road traffic situations on an anticipatory driver assistance system. Different traffic scenarios were chosen and varied in its complexity to evaluate the impact of the complexity of different driving situations on an anticipatory ADAS. A driving simulator study was conducted with 27 participants. The results showed that the fuel consumption is reduced with the assistant system due to earlier and better reaction but that there is no influence of the complexity of a situation on that. The influence of the situation on the driver in his use of the ADAS can be shown by his visual behavior. The percentage of the gaze time on the human machine interface (HMI) on the system is significantly reduced in the more complex situations.

Simulator
Software

7 versions available

The integration of vision and proprioception for obstacle crossing in people with motor-incomplete spinal cord injury

Year: 2014

Authors: RN Malik

Background: In people with motor-incomplete spinal cord injury (m-iSCI), the ability to perform skilled walking tasks (e.g. obstacle crossing) is an essential component of functional mobility. Sensorimotor integration of visual and proprioceptive inputs, alongside indicators of functional ambulation (i.e. self-efficacy) is important for successful obstacle crossing. Thus, the overall objective was to understand how motor and sensory (specifically proprioception) deficits in people with m-iSCI affect obstacle-crossing strategies. Methods: Nine individuals with m-iSCI and 10 able-bodied controls were asked to step over an obstacle scaled to their motor abilities under full and obstructed vision conditions. An eye tracker was used to determine gaze behavior, motion capture analysis was used to determine toe kinematics relative to the obstacle, and electrogoniometers were used to determine peak ankle, hip and knee (dorsi)flexion angles during obstacle crossing. In subjects with m-iSCI, questionnaires were used to determine balance and ambulatory self-efficacy. Lower limb proprioceptive sense was assessed using a hip and knee joint position-matching task using the Lokomat and customized software controls. Results: Lower limb proprioceptive sense was impaired and varied across subjects with m-iSCI. m-iSCI subjects tended to glance at the obstacle more frequently as they approached it and with shorter gaze durations compared to controls. Decreased self-efficacy and impaired proprioceptive sense may have contributed to these differences in gaze behavior. Obstruction of the lower visual field led to appropriate modulation of lead and trail horizontal distance, however toe clearance height in m-iSCI subjects was increased to a greater extent than controls. An emerging relationship was observed between proprioceptive sense and toe clearance height, in particular for the trail limb. m-iSCI subjects increased peak knee flexion to a greater extent than controls when vision was obstructed. All other changes in joint kinematics were similar across groups. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that people with m-iSCI rely more heavily on vision to cross obstacles and show impairments in the key gait parameters required for successful obstacle crossing. Our data suggest that proprioceptive deficits also need to be considered in rehabilitation programs aimed at improving functional mobility in individuals with m-iSCI.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

3 versions available

Towards automated comparison of eye-tracking recordings in dynamic scenes

Year: 2014

Authors: TC Kübler,DR Bukenberger

Experiments involving eye-tracking usually require analysis of large data. While there is a rich landscape of tools to extract information about fixations and saccades from such data, the analysis at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., comparison of visual scanpaths between subjects) is still performed manually. Especially, the comparison of scanpaths derived from dynamic scenarios, where the observer is in permanent interaction with her environment, is highly challenging. In this work we (i) introduce a new work-flow for automated scanpath comparison in dynamic environments, which combines image processing, object tracking, and sequence comparison algorithms, and (ii) provide a new data set for performance evaluation of scanpath comparison methods that was extracted from eye-tracking data during an interactive tea-cooking task, referring to the experiments by Land et al. [1]. Furthermore, to showcase the applicability of our work-flow, we applied our method to the above data set to find differences in visual behavior between several runs for the tea-cooking task.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

6 versions available

Traffic light assistant-what the users want

Year: 2014

Authors: M Krause, A Rissel,K Bengler

In a driving simulator experiment, a prototypical traffic light phase assistant is assessed. The main research issue: How would a user customize the system? As a sideline, data is gathered with a special Detection Response Task (DRT), the Tactile Detection Task (TDT), in conjunction with an auditory cognitive task as reference. Recorded gaze data, driving behavior, subjective ratings with a System Usability Scale (SUS) and an AttrakDiff2 -questionnaire are also reported. The subjects were able to customize ten parameters of the traffic light assistant system. The so personalized system configuration showed no great enhancement in the subjective ratings; thus, the later application implementation will include only little configuration features for the user. However, the test persons exhibited a willingness to be informed about speeding by a speed alerting function within the traffic light assistant system. The performance (reaction time) of the TDT is interpreted as a measure for the cognitive load while using the interface. The auditory cognitive task prolonged the reaction times for a tactile detection task more than the traffic light information system. The glance times are in line with current guidelines and the driving behavior shows a potential benefit for safety. Thus, the reported experiment evaluates an interface for use while driving with objective metrics regarding distraction and subjective results related to usability and joy-of-use.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

4 versions available

Walk, look, remember: The influence of the gallery’s spatial layout on human memory for an art exhibition

Year: 2014

Authors: J Krukar

The spatial organisation of museums and its influence on the visitor experience has been the subject of numerous studies. Previous research, despite reporting some actual behavioural correlates, rarely had the possibility to investigate the cognitive processes of the art viewers. In the museum context, where spatial layout is one of the most powerful curatorial tools available, attention and memory can be measured as a means of establishing whether or not the gallery fulfils its function as a space for contemplating art. In this exploratory experiment, 32 participants split into two groups explored an experimental, non-public exhibition and completed two unanticipated memory tests afterwards. The results show that some spatial characteristics of an exhibition can inhibit the recall of pictures and shift the focus to perceptual salience of the artworks.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

14 versions available

Wayfinding decision situations: A conceptual model and evaluation

Year: 2014

Authors: I Giannopoulos,P Kiefer,M Raubal,KF Richter

Humans engage in wayfinding many times a day. We try to find our way in urban environments when walking towards our work places or when visiting a city as tourists. In order to reach the targeted destination, we have to make a series of wayfinding decisions of varying complexity. Previous research has focused on classifying the complexity of these wayfinding decisions, primarily looking at the complexity of the decision point itself (e.g., the number of possible routes or branches). In this paper, we proceed one step further by incorporating the user, instructions, and environmental factors into a model that assesses the complexity of a wayfinding decision. We constructed and evaluated three models using data collected from an outdoor wayfinding study. Our results suggest that additional factors approximate the complexity of a wayfinding decision better than the simple model using only the number of branches as a criterion.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

11 versions available

Where am I? Investigating map matching during self‐localization with mobile eye tracking in an urban environment

Year: 2014

Authors: P Kiefer,I Giannopoulos,M Raubal

Self-localization is the process of identifying one's current position on a map, and it is a crucial part of any wayfinding process. During self-localization the wayfinder matches visually perceptible features of the environment, such as landmarks, with map symbols to constrain potential locations on the map. The success of this visual matching process constitutes an important factor for the success of self-localization. In this research we aim at observing the visual matching process between environment and map during self-localization with real-world mobile eye tracking. We report on one orientation and one self-localization experiment, both in an outdoor urban environment. The gaze data collected during the experiments show that successful participants put significantly more visual attention to those symbols on the map that were helpful in the given situation than unsuccessful participants. A sequence analysis revealed that they also had significantly more switches of visual attention between map symbols and their corresponding landmarks in the environment, which suggests they were following a more effective self-localization strategy.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

10 versions available

An investigation into control mechanisms of driving performance: resource depletion and effort-regulation

Year: 2013

Authors: TL Louw

Driver fatigue is a complex phenomenon that has a range of causal factors including sleep-related and task-related factors. These manifest as different safety and performance outcomes. Extensive research has been applied to linking these factors to performance impairment. However, little research focuses on the mechanisms by which this link exists. This research project therefore focuses on the processes underlying how driving performance is controlled and maintained during the development on non-sleep-related driver fatigue. The main aim was to establish whether progressive impairment of driving control over a prolonged drive could be attributed to a depletion of attentional resources, as proposed by Resource Theory, or to a withdrawal of effort, as proposed by Effort-Regulation Theory. As a multi-component skill, driving requires perception, cognition and motor output. The secondary aim of this research was therefore to assess whether a prolonged drive impairs stage-specific information processing. Participants (n=24) in three experimental groups performed a 90-minute simulated drive wherein they were expected to keep the bonnet of a car on a lane (tracking task). The three groups differed in terms of lane width: small, medium and large, corresponding to low, medium, and high task-demand, respectively. To assess the impacts of this task on stage-specific information processing, participants performed a set of resource specific tests before and after the prolonged drive. Each task had two difficulty variations to ensure that performance decrement was due not only to the task-characteristic, but specifically to resource depletion. The tests probing information processing were: a modified Fitts’ tapping task for motor programming, a digit recall task for perception, and an object recognition reading task for cognition. Performance was measured as lateral deviation of the car. Physiological measures included heart rate frequency (HR) and various time- and frequency-domain heart rate variability (HRV) parameters, eye blink frequency and duration. The Borg CR-10 scale was used to evaluate subjective effort and fatigue during the task. Driving control declined over time and was supplemented by HR, HRV, blink frequency and duration, indicating an increase in parasympathetic activity (or a reduction in arousal). An increase in blink frequency was considered as a sign of withdrawal of attentional resources over time. Driving control declined to a greater extent in the large road width group and reflected a lower parasympathetic activity, whereas the inverse was observed for the small road width group. Resource tests reveal a non-specific impairment of information processing following the prolonged drive. However, this was accompanied by an increase in parasympathetic activity. Overall, results indicate that Effort-Regulation Theory better accounts for the impairment of driving control in prolonged driving than does Resource Theory. This suggests that the impact of fatigue is guided more by task goals and intrinsic motivation than by the manner in which the fatigue state developed. Moreover, performance impairment by effort-regulation is dependant more on time on task than on task-demand.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

2 versions available

D9. 3-Requirements & Specification & first Modelling for the Automotive AdCoS and HF-RTP Requirements Definition Update (Feedback)

Year: 2013

Authors: FT CRF, EL REL, T Bellet, JC Bornard, D Gruyer

The main objective of WP9 is the development and qualification of AdCoS in Automotive (AUT) domain using the tailored HF-RTP and methodology from WP1, to demonstrate the added value for industrial engineering processes, in terms of reduced cost, fewer necessary development cycles and better functional performances. This report describes the requirements, specifications and the first modelling for the AdCoS applications in the Automotive (AUT) domain, with reference to the target-scenarios (TSs) and the Use-cases (UCs) described in the deliverable D9.1 “Requirements Definition for the HF-RTP, Methodology and Techniques and Tools from an Automotive Perspective”. In particular, we mainly refer to the two AdCoS applications implemented on the real test-vehicles (TVs): • Adapted Assistance, that is a Lane-Change Assistant (LCA) system, led by the CRF partner. • Adapted Automation, that is an automatic Intuitive Driving (ID) system, led by the IAS partner. In addition, this report includes the results of a first attempt to model the AdCoS using the HF-RTP and methodology utilising either pre-existing tools or new tools to be developed in the frame of the HoliDes project. Section §2 contains a list of tools definitely applied from WP1-5. Section §3 describes each AdCoS use case including AdCoS operational definitions, HMI for the AdCoS, tools applied from the HF-RTP, requirements and specifications, and the system architecture. Section §4 reports on feedback from WP 1-5. Section §5 presents some conclusions and the next steps.

Simulator
Software

1 version available:

Dynamic simulation and prediction of drivers’ attention distribution

Year: 2013

Authors: B Wortelen,M Baumann,A Lüdtke

The distribution of driver’s attention is a crucial aspect for safe driving. The SEEV model by Wickens is a state of the art model that provides an easy but abstract way to estimate the distribution of attention for specific situations. The present paper presents an extension of the SEEV model, the Adaptive Information Expectancy (AIE) model. The AIE model is a sophisticated model of attention control, able to provide estimates based on a far more detailed simulation of human allocation of attention within a cognitive architecture. The AIE model relates attention directly to a task model, which is executed within the architecture. It is able to automatically measure task-dependent event frequencies and adapt its distribution of attention according to these frequencies. The AIE model was used to create a dynamic cognitive driver model. A driving simulator study with 21 participants has been conducted to evaluate the predictions of the driver model. Event rates for the primary driving task and an artificial secondary task have been varied, as well as the priorization of tasks. Both the SEEV and the AIE model provided estimates for percentage dwell times with similar quality, while the AIE model was able to provide estimates for further measure like gaze frequencies and link values.

Simulator
Software

8 versions available