Analyzing Driver Eye Movements to Investigate the Impact of Distraction on Driving Behaviour

EasyChair Preprint no. 7643

Abstract

Driving simulator studies are popular means to investigate driving behavior in a controlled environment and test safety-critical events that would otherwise not be possible to test in naturalistic driving conditions. While several factors are known to affect driving performance, driving distraction has been emphasized as a safetycritical issue across the globe. In this context, this study aims to explore the impact of distraction resulting from mobile phone use to write and read text messages on driver behavior. As a part of the greater i-DREAMS project, this study uses a car driving simulator experimental design in Germany to test driver performance under a variety of conditions. Wearable eye-tracker glasses are used to investigate the attention allocation and eye movement patterns of drivers. This research focuses on driver response to different risky events on the road (i.e., pedestrian collision, tailgating) and the impact of distraction on driving performance. A set of eye movement and driving performance measures of 58 participants are analyzed. The results reveal a significant change of drivers’ gaze patterns during the distraction drives with significantly higher gaze points towards the i-DREAMS intervention display. The overall statistical analysis on driving performance measures suggests nearly a similar impact on driver behavior during distraction drives, with a higher deviation of lateral positioning despite the risk level of the events on the road and lower longitudinal acceleration rates for pedestrian collisions and non-critical events during distracted driving.

Keyphrases: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Distraction, driving behavior, driving simulator, eye tracking

@Booklet{EasyChair:7643,
  author = {Roja Ezzati Amini and Christelle Al Haddad and Debapreet Batabyal and Alyssa Ryan and Isidora Gkena and Bart De Vos and Ariane Cuenen and Tom Brijs and Constantinos Antoniou},
  title = {Analyzing Driver Eye Movements to Investigate the Impact of Distraction on Driving Behaviour},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 7643},

  year = {EasyChair, 2022}}