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Total results: 582

Research on drivers’ visual characteristics in different curvatures and turning conditions of the extra-long urban underwater tunnels

Year: 2020

Authors: F Jiao, Z Du,S Wang, L Yang, Y Ni

In order to study driver’s visual characteristics under different curvatures and turning conditions in extra-long urban underwater tunnels, fixation and saccade were herein regarded as the main research objectives. In this study, we carried out real vehicle testing on curved sections with 5 different radii and straight sections of the extra-long urban underwater tunnels. The driver’s fixation characteristics were studied by using fixation distribution, fixation time, fixation frequency, fixation time ratio, and frequency ratio. The driver’s saccade characteristics were investigated by selecting the saccade angle, saccade time, saccade frequency, saccade time ratio, and frequency ratio. Accordingly, mathematical models of the driver’s fixation time, fixation frequency, saccade time, and saccade frequency under different curvatures and turning conditions in the extra-long urban underwater tunnel were established. Combined with the change of visual distance, sight distance, and sight zone, driver’s visual characteristics in the extra-long urban underwater tunnel were further analyzed. The results demonstrated that the smaller the radius of the tunnel, the more focused driver’s fixation time, the greater the psychological pressure, and the lower the safety when driving. Under the same radius, driver’s tension and risk factors were higher during turning left, while driver’s driving mentality was more relaxed and driving situation was further stable in the right-turn.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

2 versions available

Scanpath analysis into the wild: the spatiotemporal distribution of fixations as an indicator of driver’s mental workload

Year: 2020

Authors: FD Nocera, O Ricciardi, S Mastrangelo

Past studies using the distribution of eye fixations as an indicator of mental workload are limited to simulations and laboratory tasks. Hence, this assessment strategy has not yet been proven useful in real-world settings. In order to bridge this gap, in this study eye movements of a group of individuals were recorded while driving a car in a suburban road. Drivers’ scanpaths during driving and during driving while performing mundane secondary tasks were compared in this study. A more grouped pattern of fixations was expected in the dual-task condition than in the driving-only condition. As expected, results showed the effectiveness the spatiotemporal distribution of fixations in correctly discriminating between task load conditions, therefore indicating its usefulness for assessing mental workload also in complex real-world tasks.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

4 versions available

Searching for street parking: effects on driver vehicle control, workload, physiology, and glances

Year: 2020

Authors: CT Ponnambalam,B Donmez

Urban areas that allow street parking exhibit a heightened crash risk that is often attributed to factors such as reduced road width, decreased visibility, and interruptions to traffic flow. No previous on-road studies have investigated how the demands of searching for parking affect driving performance, physiology, and visual attention allocation. We are interested in these effects on the driver and their possible influence on the safety of the environment. While simulator studies offer several benefits, the physical, mental and social pressures incurred by searching for parking in an urban streetscape cannot be emulated in a simulator. We conducted an on-road instrumented vehicle study with 28 participants driving in downtown Toronto, Canada to explore the effect of searching for street parking on drivers. During the experiment, participants drove two routes in a counterbalanced order: one route with a parking search task, and the other route as a baseline. Speed and lane position were measured via vehicle instrumentation, heart rate and galvanic skin response were measured through physiological sensors, and gaze position was collected through a head-mounted eye-tracker. Participants completed the NASA Task Load Index after each route. It was found that while searching for parking, participants drove slower and closer to the curb, and perceived higher workload. While there were no statistically significant effects in physiological measures, there was a rise in heart rate approaching statistical significance. A detailed analysis of eye-tracking data revealed a clear change in glance behavior while searching for parking, with an increase in long off-road glances (>2 s) and decrease in shorter off-road glances (<1.6 s). Some exhibited behaviors (e.g., slowing down) may be seen to compensate for the potentially negative effects of increased demands associated with parking search, while others (e.g., increase in long off-road glances) have the potential to increase crash risk. This study acts as an important first step in revealing changes in driving performance, physiology and glance behavior brought on by searching for parking in a real-world urban environment.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

9 versions available

Take-Over Time Modeling and Prediction for Conditional Driving Automation

Year: 2020

Authors: S Hwang

Conditional driving automation represents a pivotal milestone in the journey towards fully autonomous systems. At this intermediate level of automation, human drivers are periodically required to take over control from the automated system when specific conditions or scenarios are encountered. One of the key challenges in ensuring safety and effectiveness in such systems is understanding and predicting the human driver's take-over time (TOT) - the time it takes for a driver to respond to a takeover request. This dissertation focuses on modeling and predicting TOT by examining various factors that influence human performance during takeover events. By leveraging data from driving simulators and on-road experiments, the research delves into the effects of driver awareness, driving environment complexity, and the nature of the takeover request on TOT. The findings provide crucial insights for designing better human-machine interfaces and optimizing the transition process in conditional driving automation.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

2 versions available

The benefits and user experience of hearing aids controlled by eye gaze of

Year: 2020

Authors: LJ Nellemann

A problem with hearing aids is that they do not always reduce the noise correctly, which can make it hard to follow a conversation in noisy surroundings. This master thesis seeks to investigate if eye gaze steering of a hearing aid can benefit the hearing aid user by testing two forms of eye gaze steering on a concept level; hard and soft eye gaze steering. An experiment is conducted with 13 hearing aid users answering questions by following a conversation during four different conditions; a familiarization round and a no, hard, and soft eye gaze steering condition. For every condition, participants answered a NASA Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire for measuring workload, and after the experiment, an exit-interview was conducted. When calculating the percentage of correct answers during each condition the results show the familiarization round to have the most correct answers, followed by the hard eye gaze steering, soft eye gaze steering, and no steering with least correct answers. A significant difference is found between all conditions, except the hard and soft eye gaze steering. When measuring workload the only difference is found between the familiarization round and the three other conditions, where the familiarization is scoring lowest. The eye gaze steering of a hearing aid seems to work by reducing noise that participants do not want to listen to, and when asked about their preferences, participants preferred the hard eye gaze steering.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

1 version available:

THE EFFECT OF VISUAL GAZE LOCATION ON BLOCK-START BIOMECHANICS

Year: 2020

Authors: M Lee, M Chan, O Mitsuo, D Boey

This study investigated the effects of varying visual gaze location (VGL), by means of externally-focused instruction, during the block-start “set” phase with the intention of optimizing block-start biomechanics for faster starts in an athlete-specific manner. Nine collegiate sprinters performed a series of block-starts while directing their VGL to their personal baselines, and at 0.5m, 1m, 2m and 3m from the start line. Twelve infrared opto-reflective cameras and one force plate were utilized to assess trunk, hip, knee and centre of mass kinematics, and blocks push-phase kinetics. An eyetracker was used to determine participants’ VGL. Some postural changes observed were a significant decrease in pelvic height in the “set” position, and more upright trunk postures at toe-off from the blocks, when participants gazed further at 2m and 3m. Gazing at 1m was effective in eliciting changes to pelvic horizontal velocity. These results suggest that manipulating VGL could help certain athletes to optimize their block-start biomechanics for faster starts. Coaches can consider redirecting VGL in addition to usual instructional methods to improve the block-start performances of athletes.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

3 versions available

The effect of visual HMIs of a system assisting manual drivers in manoeuvre coordination in system limit and system failure situations

Year: 2020

Authors: AK Kraft, C Maag, MI Cruz,M Baumann

Ambiguous situations in traffic often require communication and cooperation between road users. In order to resolve these situations and increase cooperative driving behavior in situations of merging or turning left, manual drivers could be assisted by an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) for cooperative driving. This simulator study investigated the behavior of drivers confronted with system limits and failures of such a system. The ADAS used in this study informed the driver about an upcoming cooperation situation and gave advice on how to behave (e.g. reduce speed, change lane). Two test situations were implemented: a system freeze and an unexpected event, which could not be detected by the system. In order to find the most fitting HMI solution, the place of presentation (head-up display (HUD) vs. instrument cluster) as well as the form of presentation (dynamic vs. symbolic) were varied. The results indicated that the most fitting HMI solution to support the driver in a complex coordinated driving situation is a dynamic HUD, mainly due to the positive effect on glance behavior. However, advantages of both forms of presentation were revealed, as each form of presentation increased the probability of recognition for one of the test situations. The fewest collisions took place with the dynamic form of presentation.

Simulator
Software

6 versions available

The effects of a predictive HMI and different transition frequencies on acceptance, workload, usability, and gaze behavior during urban automated driving

Year: 2020

Authors: T Hecht, S Kratzert,K Bengler

Automated driving research as a key topic in the automotive industry is currently undergoing change. Research is shifting from unexpected and time-critical take-over situations to human machine interface (HMI) design for predictable transitions. Furthermore, new applications like automated city driving are getting more attention and the ability to engage in non-driving related activities (NDRA) starting from SAE Level 3 automation poses new questions to HMI design. Moreover, future introduction scenarios and automated capabilities are still unclear. Thus, we designed, executed, and assessed a driving simulator study focusing on the effect of different transition frequencies and a predictive HMI while freely engaging in naturalistic NDRA. In the study with 33 participants, we found transition frequency to have effects on workload and acceptance, as well as a small impact on the usability evaluation of the system. Trust, however, was not affected. The predictive HMI was used and accepted, as can be seen by eye-tracking data and the post-study questionnaire, but could not mitigate the above-mentioned negative effects induced by transition frequency. Most attractive activities were window gazing, chatting, phone use, and reading magazines. Descriptively, window gazing and chatting gained attractiveness when interrupted more often, while reading magazines and playing games were negatively affected by transition rate.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

7 versions available

The impact of auditory continual feedback on take-overs in Level 3 automated vehicles

Year: 2020

Authors: G Cohen

Objective: To implement auditory continual feedback into the interface design of a Level 3 automated vehicle and to test whether gaze behavior and reaction times of drivers improved in take-over situations. Background: When required to assume manual control in take-over situations, drivers of Level 3 automated vehicles are less likely than conventional drivers to spot potential hazards, and their reaction time is longer. Therefore, it is crucial that the interface of Level 3 automated vehicles will be designed to improve drivers’ performance in take-over situations. Method: In two experiments, participants drove a simulated route in a Level 3 automated vehicle for 35 min with one imminent take-over event. Participants’ gaze behavior and performance in an imminent take-over event were monitored under one of three auditory interface designs: (1) Continual feedback. A system that provides verbal driving-related feedback; (2) Persistent feedback. A system that provides verbal driving-related feedback and a persistent beep; and (3) Chatter feedback. A system that provides verbal non-driving-related feedback. Also, there was a control group without feedback. Results: Under all three auditory feedback designs, the number of drivers' on-road glances increased compared to no feedback, but none of the designs shortened reaction time to the imminent event. Conclusion: Increasing the number of on-road glances during automated driving does not necessarily improve drivers’ attention to the road and their reaction times during take-overs. Application: Possible implications for the effectiveness of auditory continual feedback should be considered when designing interfaces for Level 3 automated vehicles.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

7 versions available

The instructor assistant system (iASSYST)-utilizing eye tracking for commercial aviation training purposes

Year: 2020

Authors: D Rudi,P Kiefer,M Raubal

This work investigates the potential of providing commercial aviation flight instructors with an eye tracking enhanced observation system to support the training process. During training, instructors must deal with many parallel tasks, such as operating the flight simulator, acting as air traffic controllers, observing the pilots and taking notes. This can cause instructors to miss relevant information that is crucial for debriefing the pilots. To support instructors, the instructor ASsistant SYSTem (iASSYST) was developed. It includes video, audio, simulator and eye tracking recordings. iASSYST was evaluated in a study involving 7 instructors. The results show that with iASSYST, instructors were able to support their observations of errors, find new errors, determine that some previously identified errors were not errors, and to reclassify the types of errors that they had originally identified. Instructors agreed that eye tracking can help identifying causes of pilot error. Practitioner summary: This paper introduces an instructor assistant system, which is evaluated in a user study involving 7 airline flight instructors. The system can be used by airline flight instructors to complement their observations, as a basis for discussions with pilots during debriefing, and by airline pilots to improve their flight performance.

Simulator
Software

10 versions available