Manipulating Optical Looming to Influence Perception of Time-To-Collision and its Application in Automobile Driving

Abstract

Direct manipulation of optical looming provides convincing evidence of the contribution of optical looming in estimating time-to-collision (TTC). Precise manipulation of optical looming cues can be easily accomplished through computational scaling of (real or virtual) objects without impinging upon the naturalness of the task. This paper first discusses three ways to manipulate optical looming by scaling object size in order to influence perception of TTC. Then two principles affecting the implementation of optical looming manipulation are addressed. Next by revisiting the data of previous research, influences of knowledge about the optical looming manipulation and practice on the effect of optical looming manipulation are discussed. This supports our proposed principles and confirms the possibility of introducing the concept of optical looming manipulation into actual automobile design. Finally a potential application of optical looming manipulation, a dynamic brake light system, is proposed for automobile driving, to reduce the frequency of rear-end collisions. Issues in implementation of such a system and future research to validate it are also identified.