Visual Complexity of Nighttime Driving Scenes

Abstract

This paper outlines a research project directed at determining the visual difficulty of interpreting behind-the-wheel nighttime driving scenes. A series of experiments was conducted utilizing slides which were photographed from a driver's-eye view. Three experiments assessed subjective judgment of the difficulty of the view for driving. Two further experiments examined temporal and eye-movement aspects of scene viewing. Finally, an “instability” model of scene complexity is described and related to the subjective data.