To improve the efficiency of images presented in low-cost vehicle simulators, the virtual viewing direction--the direction in which the image is rendered--can be head-slaved, the display can be surrounded with a less detailed peripheral image, or both. Three simulator experiments were used to evaluate the effect of these techniques on lane-keeping performance and spatial orientation. In Experiment 1, vehicle references or a head-slaved display (HSD) provided feedback on the virtual viewing direction. Vehicle references improved lane-keeping performance somewhat with a standard 50 deg h-by-50 deg v display. An HSD (50 deg h-by-50 deg v) allowed better steering performance, but not to the levels obtained with a wide display (150 deg h-by-50 deg v). Experiments 2a and 2b evaluated the effects of surrounding the HSD with a less detailed peripheral image and of moving the HSD discretely or continuously. With the peripheral image, lane-keeping performance (Experiment 2a) and spatial orientation (Experiment 2b) were similar to those with a wide display. In both experiments, performance with the discretely moving HSD was superior to that with the continuously moving HSD. The results show that low-cost driving simulators can be equipped with more efficient displays that are as effective as wide displays for lane-keeping and spatial orientation.
Abstract