Steering Errors May Result from Non-Rigid Transparent Optical Flow

Abstract

Transparent, non-rigid optical flow can result from environmental factors (e.g., wind-blown snow) or technological factors (e.g., superposition of sensor imagery flow on the environmental flow viewed directly through the windscreen) and can produce systematic errors in judgments of the direction of heading and control of yaw. Here, we examined whether these systematic errors generalize to control of heading in a more realistic scenario, driving across a textured ground plane through falling snow. Simulated crosswinds caused the snow to move at varying angles (0-32°) relative to the simulated direction of translation. Participants were instructed to steer such that they maintained a straight path relative to the ground plane. For non-zero angles, a pattern of systematic steering errors was found that was consistent with the pattern of errors previously observed with judgments of heading. These results suggest that motion transparency occurring in more realistic simulations can introduce systematic errors in controlling vehicles.