A HMD-Based Virtual Reality Driving Simulator

Recent advances in optics, HMD design, 3D graphics chips, and processes for personal computers have combined to make HMD based virtual reality driving simulators available at low cost. A HMD with a resolution of 1,024 by 768 with a FOV of 50o diagonally is now available for about $20,000. A graphics processor that can render large databases at fast frame rates costs only$400. Personal computers can now support multiple processors that run over 1 Gigahertz. We discuss visual concerns with a HMD, choosing a HMD for a driving simulator, HMDs compared with fixed displays, consequences of improved frame rates, autonomous vehicles, and the use of a HMD based driving simulator for studying drivers who have cognitive impairments

The Use of a Driving Simulator to Assess Senior Driver Performance: Increasing Situational Awareness Through Post-Drive One-on-One Advisement

Older drivers are over-represented in angled impact crashes and experience a higher fatality rate than their younger counterparts. Due to the gradual deterioration of the senses, diminished cognitive processing capabilities and decreased mobility and flexibility, it is more difficult for older drivers to gather and process information about their environment. This can lead older drivers to incorrectly perceive their driving environment as safe, when in reality it is not. The current study investigates whether post-drive feedback following a simulated drive can effectively change older drivers’ attitudes about their own driving ability and influence them to incorporate additional compensatory behaviors into their day-to-day driving

A History of Discrete Event Simulation Programming Languages

The history of simulation programming languages is organized as a progression in periods of similar developments. The five periods, spanning 1955-1986, are labeled: The Period of Search (1955-1960); The Advent (1961-1965); The Formative Period (1966-1970); The Expansional Period (1971-1978); and The Period of Consolidation and Regeneration (1979-1986). The focus is on recognizing the people and places that have made important contributions in addition to the nature of the contribution. A balance between comprehensive and in-depth treatment has been reached by providing more detailed description of those languages which have or have had major use. Over 30 languages are mentioned, and numerous variations are described in the major contributors. A concluding summary notes the concepts and techniques either originating with simulation programming languages or given significant visibility by them

Simulator sickness in a virtual environments driving simulator

Some users of virtual environments experience adverse effects known as simulator sickness. Common symptoms are generally grouped into nausea, oculomotor discomfort, and disorientation. This research examined whether the severity and type of simulator sickness differs due to the type of driving environment or the gender of the driver. Three environments with variations in driver workload were developed: Highway, Rural, and City. Tests were conducted using Northeastern University’s Virtual Driving Simulator. The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and postural stability tests, were used to gather data before and after participants drove the virtual environments based driving simulator. In comparison with past research, a different SSQ profile was found in that most of the symptoms reported were in the oculomotor discomfort category. This included eye strain, headaches, difficulty focusing, and blurred vision. Subjects who drove the Highway or Rural Road environments had more symptoms than those who drove the City environment. This indicates that vehicle velocity may be a factor in driving simulator sickness since subjects drove 60 mph in the Highway and Rural Road environments, but only 25 mph in the City environment. In both the before and after tests, females had less postural stability than males. Females also had a greater increase in oculomotor discomfort symptoms than males. Additional research is needed to determine why females experience more simulator sickness than males

A Virtual Environments Editor for Driving Scenes

The goal of this project was to enable the rapid creation of three-dimensional virtual driving environments. We designed and implemented a high-level scene editor that allows a user to construct a driving environment by pasting icons that represent 1) road segments, 2) road signs, 3) trees and 4) buildings. These icons represent two- and three-dimensional objects that have been predesigned. Icons can be placed in the scene at specific locations (x, y, and z coordinates). The editor includes the capability of a user to "drive" a vehicle using a computer mouse for steering, accelerating and braking. At any time during the process of building a virtual environment, a user may switch to "Run Mode" and inspect the three-dimensional scene by "driving" through it using the mouse. Adjustments and additions can be made to the virtual environment by going back to "Build Mode". Once a user is satisfied with the threedimensional virtual environment, it can be saved in a file. The file can used with Java3D software that enables the traversing of three-dimensional environments. The process of building virtual environments from predesigned icons can be applied to many other application areas. It will enable novice computer users to rapidly construct and use three-dimensional virtual environments

Vehicle eye referencing data. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.Mode of access: Internet.COP: 2Author corporate affiliation: Wayne State University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Detroit, Mich.Report covers the period 17 Dec 1975 to 16 Sept 1976Subject code: ODEB

Human factors issues in virtual environments: A review of the literature

Virtual environments are envisioned as being systems that will enhance the communication between humans and computers. If virtual systems are to be effective and well received by their users, considerable human-factors research needs to be accomplished. This paper provides an overview of many of these human-factors issues, including human performance efficiency in virtual worlds (which is likely influenced by task characteristics, user characteristics, human sensory and motor physiology, multimodal interaction, and the potential need for new design metaphors); health and safety issues (of which cybersickness and deleterious physiological aftereffects may pose the most concern); and the social impact of the technology. The challenges each of these factors present to the effective design of virtual environments and systematic approaches to the resolution of each of these issues are discussed

Communications and Decisions of Autonomous Vehicles in Virtual Environments

International audience-In many virtual environments, autonomous objects, such as people and vehicles, are essential to increase the feeling of presence. A goal is to have autonomous objects behave as humans, or in the case of vehicles, as if humans controlled them. Such objects are known as intelligent autonomous objects. We present a combination of a communication model and a decisionmaking model to achieve the goal of modeling autonomous objects that behave intelligently. Both models are attached to autonomous objects that represent people and vehicles in a virtual environment. This enables such an autonomous object to be an independent entity that is self-motivated and self-controlled. These intelligent autonomous objects are able to communicate with other autonomous objects via their communication model according to decisions reached by their decision-making model. The decision-making model relies on the communication model to investigate possible outcomes before making decisions. The communication model defines senders, receivers, contents, and channels (media through which content is transferred) in realtime to gather desired information from specified objects. The decision-making model is divided into two levels, the global level and the local level. These work, respectively, with global information perceived by a perception model and the local information received by the communications model. A group of logic rules are formulated as decision trees to model the process of making decisions on the basis of real-time activities. We used traffic and people, in a virtual environments based driving simulator, as examples of intelligent communicating autonomous object