A Study on Visual Driving Simulator for Analyzing Perception Characteristics of a Driver

This paper proposes a method for analyzing drivers' spatial attention during a driving situation. Computer-generated images of forward driving scenes were projected on a screen 6 m in width, 1.8 m in height and with a 140° viewing angle. Subjects' gaze movement was measured when hazardous events were presented. We measured the characteristic of the peripheral vision with this simulator. The results of experiments conducted with six subjects revealed two types of gaze movement patterns with respect to a hazardous event. In one type, the subjects broadly captured the overall forward scene without shifting their gaze markedly; in the other type, the subjects sequentially scanned the forward scene and fixed their gaze on the hazardous event when it occurred. The former type tended to be seen for subjects with long driving experience.