Comparative experiment of attention prompting methods using VR driving simulator

This paper mainly introduces the methods of attracting the driver’s viewpoint to a specific position in the field of view in the simulation of automobile driving and carries out experiments on these methods. The use of a driving simulator can help drivers to become familiar with driving operations and traffic rules. However, because drivers often lack attention during driving and bear a lot of cognition, such as traffic signs, traffic lights, and other objects, it is necessary to provide visual guidance for drivers. Using virtual reality technology for this task is generally considered reasonable. The authors propose four attention prompt methods, namely "Point", "Arrow", "Blur" and "Dusk". To verify these four attention prompt methods’ feasibility, the authors use Unity3D to develop a virtual driving simulator. To improve the realism of the simulated driving, the authors also used a Logitech G29 steering wheel as an input device and uses the D2R-test method to conduct experiments and get the results. The experimental results show that, compared with not using any attention prompting method, turning on the attentional prompt method has a significant effect on the experimenter’s attention improvement.