A Solution to the Rear-Vision Problem in a Fixed-Base Driving Simulator

Abstract

Although driving often involves considerable use of a vehicle's mirrors, collecting data on the frequency and duration of mirror glances can be difficult. First, data collection in the real world may be time - consuming and unsafe. Second, low-cost simulators have used visual inserts within the projected image to simulate the inside mirror. When such inserts are used, a driver's search and scan behavior differs significantly from that in the real world. Both eye movements and eye accommodation processes are different for mirror inserts then for actual mirrors. This paper describes a low-cost driving simulator that allows actual rear-vision mirrors to be used. Thus, eye-mirror scan behavior in our simulator emulates that of the real world. Our simulator, with the actual vehicle mirrors, is composed of two networked PCs, two projectors, and two screens. The forward view is projected to the front screen from the server, and the rear view is projected to the back screen from the client. The scene and autonomous vehicles in the server and client are synchronized by communication between the server and client. A driver seated in the vehicle body/buck views the front driving scene on the front screen and views the rear driving scene in either the left-side mirror or inside mirror. A small video camera, which is synchronized with the computer-generated visual scene, is used to record the operator's glances to the vehicle's mirrors. We plan to gather information and data during a study driver behavior when making lane changes under various situations. The results may be relevant to understanding the process of attaining driving skills, and could contribute to the content of driver training and education.