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Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10919/5524

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Browsing Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) by Department "Industrial and Systems Engineering"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    AR DriveSim: An Immersive Driving Simulator for Augmented Reality Head-Up Display Research
    Gabbard, Joseph L.; Smith, Missie; Tanous, Kyle; Kim, Hyungil; Jonas, Bryan (Frontiers, 2019-10-23)
    Optical see-through automotive head-up displays (HUDs) are a form of augmented reality (AR) that is quickly gaining penetration into the consumer market. Despite increasing adoption, demand, and competition among manufacturers to deliver higher quality HUDs with increased fields of view, little work has been done to understand how best to design and assess AR HUD user interfaces, and how to quantify their effects on driver behavior, performance, and ultimately safety. This paper reports on a novel, low-cost, immersive driving simulator created using a myriad of custom hardware and software technologies specifically to examine basic and applied research questions related to AR HUDs usage when driving. We describe our experiences developing simulator hardware and software and detail a user study that examines driver performance, visual attention, and preferences using two AR navigation interfaces. Results suggest that conformal AR graphics may not be inherently better than other HUD interfaces. We include lessons learned from our simulator development experiences, results of the user study and conclude with limitations and future work.
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    Effect of Intersection Lighting Design on Drivers' Perceived Visibility and Glare
    Bhagavathula, Rajaram; Gibbons, Ronald B.; Nussbaum, Maury A. (SAGE, 2019-02-01)
    A systems-level approach to intersection lighting design has shown that illuminating the intersection box increases drivers’ nighttime visual performance. However, for an intersection lighting design to be effective and accepted, it should not only maximize visual performance but also enhance perceived visibility and minimize glare. The goals of this study were to assess the effects of different intersection lighting designs on these two outcomes. Visibility was assessed with respect to a pedestrian, several targets, and an intersection. Perceptions of visibility and glare were measured using Likert scales, with participants exposed to multiple lighting designs on a realistic intersection. Twenty-four participants completed the study, with an equal number of younger (18–35 years) and older (65+) drivers. The lighting design that illuminated the intersection box had the highest levels of perceived target and intersection visibility and the lowest ratings of glare. For the same lighting configuration, a strong positive correlation was also found between perceived target visibility and previous results on target detection distances. In this configuration, perceived visibility plateaued between 7 and 10 lux of mean intersection illuminance. Increased levels of perceived visibility in different conditions were likely a result of size and contrast differences, and the distribution of the luminaires used. These results suggest that illuminating the intersection box has multiple benefits, in that it not only increases visual performance but also increases perceived visibility and reduces glare.
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    Effects of In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) Tasks on the Information Processing Demands of a Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) Driver
    Blanco, Myra (Virginia Tech, 1999-12-10)
    This study was performed with two main goals in mind. The first goal was to understand and predict "red-lines" and "yellow-lines" in terms of what the CVO driver can process without hindering the primary task of driving. The second goal was to collect conventional secondary task data for CVO driving performance. An on-the-road experiment was performed with the help of 12 truck drivers. Type of task, presentation format, information density, and age were the independent variables used in the experiment. The 22 dependent measures collected were grouped into the following categories: eye glance measures, longitudinal driving performance, lateral driving performance, secondary task performance, and subjective assessment. The findings of this study strongly suggest that paragraphs should not be used under any circumstance to present information to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. On the other hand, the Graphics with Icons represent the most appropriate format in which driving instructions and information should be presented for IVIS/CVO tasks. In order to avoid a high visual attention demand to the driver due to a secondary task, only simple search tasks with the most important information shall be presented. Although the suggested format, type of task, and information density represent a higher visual attention demand than a conventional secondary task, these characteristics seem to bind a task with a moderate attentional demand. Other combinations of format, type of task, and information density will cause an increase in the driver's attentional demand that will consequently deteriorate their driving performance causing unsafe driving situations.
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    Effects of Intersection Lighting Design on Nighttime Visual Performance of Drivers
    Bhagavathula, Rajaram; Gibbons, Ronald B.; Nussbaum, Maury A. (Taylor & Francis, 2018-01-01)
    Nighttime crashes at intersections present a major traffic safety issue in the United States. Existing approaches to intersection lighting design do not account for a driver’s visual performance or the potential interactive effects of vehicle headlamps and roadway lighting. For effective design lighting at intersections, empirical research is required to evaluate the effects of lighting configuration (part of the intersection illuminated) and lighting levels on nighttime driver visual performance. The current study had two goals: First, to quantify visual performance in three lighting configurations (illuminating the intersection box, approach, or both) and second, to determine what lighting levels within each lighting configuration support the best visual performance. The study involved a target detection task completed at night on a realistic roadway intersection. Illuminating the intersection box led to superior visual performance, as indicated by longer target detection distances, fewer missed targets, and more targets identified within a safe stopping distance. For this lighting configuration, visual performance plateaued between 7 and 10 lx of mean intersection illuminance. These results have important implications for the design of intersection lighting at isolated/rural intersections, specifically that illuminating the intersection box is an effective strategy to increase nighttime visual performance for a wider range of driver ages and could also be an energy-efficient solution.
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    The Impact of Local/Short Haul Operations on Driver Fatigue
    Hanowski, Richard J. (Virginia Tech, 2000-05-23)
    Massie, Blower, and Campbell (1997) indicate that trucks that operate less than 50 miles from the vehicle's home base comprise 58% of the trucking industry. However, despite being the largest segment, research involving local/short haul (L/SH) operations has been scant. In fact, little is known about the general safety issues in L/SH operations. As a precursor to the present research, Hanowski, Wierwille, Gellatly, Early, and Dingus (1998) conducted a series of focus groups in which L/SH drivers provided their perspective on safety issues, including fatigue, in their industry. As a follow-up to the Hanowski et al. work, the effort presented here consisted of an on-road field study where L/SH trucks were instrumented with data collection equipment. Two L/SH trucking companies and 42 L/SH drivers participated in this research. To the author's knowledge, this is the first in-situ data collection effort of its kind with L/SH drivers. The analyses focused on determining if fatigue is an issue in L/SH operations. Of primary interest were critical incidents (near-crashes) where drivers were judged to be at fault. The results of the analyses indicated that fatigue was present immediately prior to driver involvement in at-fault critical incidents. Though it is difficult to determine why fatigue was present, the results seem to indicate that much of the fatigue that the drivers' experienced was brought with them to the job, rather than being caused by the job. There are four basic outputs of the Phase II research: (1) a description of the L/SH drivers who participated, (2) a description of critical incidents, (3) a determination if fatigue is an issue in L/SH trucking, and (4) the validation of the fatigue factors cited in Hanowski et al. (1998) using a proposed fatigue model. These four outputs culminate in a set of pragmatic guidelines to address fatigue and other safety issues in L/SH operations. Five guidelines are proposed that are directed at: (1) driver education with regard to on-the-job drowsiness/inattention, (2) driver education with regard to sleep hygiene, (3) driver training, particularly for novice L/SH truck drivers, (4) driver screening, and (5) public monitoring of L/SH driver performance.