Hidetoshi Nakayasu

Useful field of view in simulated driving: Reaction times and eye movements of drivers.

To examine the spatial distribution of a useful field of view (UFOV) in driving, reaction times (RTs) and eye movements were measured in simulated driving. In the experiment, a normal or mirror-reversed letter “E” was presented on driving images with different eccentricities and directions from the current gaze position. The results showed significantly slower RTs in the upper and upper left directions than in the other directions. The RTs were significantly slower in the left directions than in the right directions. These results suggest that the UFOV in driving may be asymmetrical among the meridians in the visual field.

Useful Field of View of Aging Drivers as a Product Design Tool for In-Vehicle Visual Aids

Technology has provided drivers with in-vehicle information systems (INVIS) that can make driving more pleasurable but at the same time more complex in sharing visual attention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of the useful field of view (UFOV) as a tool for developing driver visual attention and visual processing aids by automobile and INVIS designers. We expressed UFOV as a function of saccadic amplitude between fixation points and durations and evaluated it across different driving scenarios and age groups. Our results suggest that UFOV radius depends on driving scenario, time of event, and age, with two-factor and three-factor interactions among these variables. Based on these results suggestions are made that will aid designers in developing better in-vehicle information systems – scenario information that may otherwise be missed by older drivers.

Analysis of Evacuation Behavior in Aircraft Accident Using Evacuation Model Based on MAS

This paper evaluates the flow of passengers towards the emergency exit by using a system simulation based on a multi-agent system (MAS). To represent the behavior of panicked passengers, an internal model was introduced that reflected the changing emotional state of a passenger during an aircraft accident. In this internal model, an agent representing a panicked passenger exhibits non-adaptive behavior, that is, not following social rules regarding queuing in line at the emergency exit in the cabin. From the simulation studies, it was found that the selfish and abnormal behavior of a passenger, attributed to panic-related emotions, caused a slowdown in the cabins evacuation flow resulting in a delay in the evacuation egress time from an aircraft after an accident. By considering the simulation results from the point of view of social psychology, it was illustrated that the size of evacuation group affects performance during the evacuation.