Using scenario driven research, a Driver Advocate (DA) system has been designed to advise the driver about potentially unsafe situations based on information from environmental sensors. DA is an intelligent dynamic system that monitors, senses, prioritises, personalises, and sends alerts to the driver appropriate to the moment. This has the potential to sharply decrease driver distraction and inattention. To support the realisation of DA, a DA Tool (DAT) has been developed to co-ordinate with a KQ (previously Hyperion) virtual driving simulator and allow the merging of the simulated driving performance, the environmental sensors, and the intelligent use of audio, visual, and tactile feedback to alert the driver to potential danger and unsafe driving behaviour. DAT monitors the traffic, lane following, forward and side clearances, vehicle condition, cockpit distractions, Infotainment use, and the driver affective behaviour. The DAT is designed to be highly configurable, flexible, and user friendly to facilitate creative freedom in designing useability and human factors experiments and rapid prototyping.
Samenvatting