The "Driving with Camera View" project studies driving performance when the only view of the world is through a camera-monitor system. Military applications are "driving under armour" and steering Unmanned Ground Vehicles. The present experiment was done in a driving simulator, with three factors: camera position (low or high), field size (50 degrees or 100 degrees), and magnification factor (0.5 or 1.0). In each condition the subjects (military driving instructors) performed the same task battery: turning sharp curves, lane change, and estimation of speed and distance. Dependent variables included objective driving performance measures and subjective difficulty ratings. The results show that best overall performance and least difficulty was found in the camera conditions with 100 degrees field size and magnification 1.0. It is important to show indicators for vehicle width and lateral position in the image, like the bonnet, and/or special markers on the vehicle front end.
Samenvatting