A
AALARD
Guest
Device could warn driver: Curve ahead
MUNSTER, Germany, (UPI) -- A device monitoring eye movements could warn that a winding road needs driver attention, German researchers say.
"If the driver does not show his typical pattern of eye movements upon approaching a bend, then the system will assume that he has not seen it and will warn him in time," study author Farid Kandil of the University of Munster in Germany says in a statement.
Kandil's goal is to build an in-car device that warns the driver in danger of unintentionally departing from the lane.
So far, Kandil and colleagues reported drivers' eyes predictably tend to look at a "tangent" point on the lane when negotiating a curve. The further drivers can look ahead -- in left-hand curves, side curves and leaving a curve -- the less they look at the tangent point.
The study, published in the Journal of Vision, also finds drivers entering a right-bound curve, spend more time looking at the tangent point.
Kandil and colleagues based their findings on eye movement data recorded as six drivers test-drove repeatedly through a series of 12 right- and left-hand bends. The experiments were conducted in continental European/U.S. style right-hand traffic.
MUNSTER, Germany, (UPI) -- A device monitoring eye movements could warn that a winding road needs driver attention, German researchers say.
"If the driver does not show his typical pattern of eye movements upon approaching a bend, then the system will assume that he has not seen it and will warn him in time," study author Farid Kandil of the University of Munster in Germany says in a statement.
Kandil's goal is to build an in-car device that warns the driver in danger of unintentionally departing from the lane.
So far, Kandil and colleagues reported drivers' eyes predictably tend to look at a "tangent" point on the lane when negotiating a curve. The further drivers can look ahead -- in left-hand curves, side curves and leaving a curve -- the less they look at the tangent point.
The study, published in the Journal of Vision, also finds drivers entering a right-bound curve, spend more time looking at the tangent point.
Kandil and colleagues based their findings on eye movement data recorded as six drivers test-drove repeatedly through a series of 12 right- and left-hand bends. The experiments were conducted in continental European/U.S. style right-hand traffic.