Gerald J. Witt

Identification of real-time diagnostic measures of visual distraction with an automatic eye-tracking system

Objective: This study was conducted to identify eye glance measures that are diagnostic of visual distraction. Background: Visual distraction degrades performance, but real-time diagnostic measures have not been identified. Method: In a driving simulator, 14 participants responded to a lead vehicle braking at -2 or -2.7 m/s2 periodically while reading a varying number of words (6-15 words every 13 s) on peripheral displays (with diagonal eccentricities of 24°, 43°, and 75°). Results: As the number of words and display eccentricity increased, total glance duration and reaction time increased and driving performance suffered. Conclusion: Correlation coefficients between several glance measures and reaction time or performance variables were reliably high, indicating that these glance measures are diagnostic of visual distraction. It is predicted that for every 25% increase in total glance duration, reaction time is increased by 0.39 s and standard deviation of lane position is increased by 0.06 m. Application: Potential applications of this research include assessing visual distraction in real time, delivering advisories to distracted drivers to reorient their attention to driving, and using distraction information to adapt forward collision and lane departure warning systems to enhance system effectiveness.

Studying the Effects of Driver Distraction and Traffic Density on the Probability of Crash and Near-Crash Events in Naturalistic Driving Environment

Driver distraction detection and intervention are important for designing modern driver-assistance systems and for improving safety. The main research question of this paper is to investigate how the cumulative driver off-road glance duration can be controlled to reduce the probability of occurrences of crash and near-crash events. Based on the available data sets from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) 100-car study, the conditional probability is calculated to study the chance of crash and near-crash events when the given cumulative off-road glance duration in 6 s has been reached. Different off-road eye-glance locations and traffic density levels are also evaluated. The results show that one linear relationship can be obtained between the cumulative off-road eye-glance duration in 6 s and the risk of occurrences of crash and near-crash events, which varies for different off-road eye-glance locations. In addition, the traffic density level is found to be one significant moderator to this linear relationship. Detailed comparisons are made for different traffic density levels, and one nonlinear equation is obtained to predict the probability of occurrences of crash and near-crash events by considering both cumulative off-road glance duration and traffic density levels.

Efficient real-time algorithms for eye state and head pose tracking in advanced driver support systems

This article shows cutting-edge computer vision methods employed in advanced vision sensing technologies for medical, safety and security applications, where the human eye represents the object of interest for both the imager and the computer. As the eye scans the environment, or focuses on particular objects in the scene, the processor simultaneously localizes the eye position, tracks its position and movement over time, and infers counter measures such as fatigue level, attention level, and gaze direction in real-time and automatically. The focus of this demonstration is placed on four different algorithms: auto-initialization (RHED), eye position tracking (SIRAT), eye closure recognition (HRA), driver head pose categorization.

Driver state monitor from DELPHI

We present an automotive-grade, real-time, vision-based driver state monitor. Upon detecting and tracking the drivers facial features, the system analyzes eye-closures and head pose to infer his/her fatigue or distraction. This information is used to warn the driver and to modulate the actions of other safety systems. The purpose of this monitor is to increase road safety by preventing drivers from falling asleep or from being overly distracted, and to improve the effectiveness of other safety systems.

Study on the Display Positions for the Haptic Rotary Device-Based Integrated In-Vehicle Infotainment Interface

Integrated multimodal systems is one promising direction to improve human-vehicle interaction. In order to create intelligent human-vehicle interfaces and reduce visual load during secondary tasks, combining a haptic rotary device and a graphic display will provide one practical solution. However, in literature, the proper display position for the haptic rotary device is not fully investigated. In this paper, one experimental infotainment system is studied (including a haptic rotary control device and a graphic display) to evaluate the proper display position. Measurements used include task completion time, reaction to road events, lane/velocity keeping during secondary tasks, and user preference. Three display positions are considered: high mounted position, cluster position, and center stack position. The results show that, with increased on-road and off-road visual loads, the cluster display position can reduce lane position deviation significantly compared to high mounted and center stack positions. In addition, the high mounted and cluster display positions are better toward two different road events, including strong wind gust and extreme deceleration of the lead car.