A driving simulator is presented for relatively low cost studies referring to the interaction between vehicles and drivers. Many different studies or activities can be undertaken: driver-traffic interaction, driver training, and even scientific investigations on mental diseases. The virtual reality technology has been applied. The virtual driver is positioned on a real vehicle seat and holds a real steering wheel. The throttle and brake pedals can be operated normally. The frame carrying the virtualdriver may swing around a roll axisand around a pitch axis. The virtual driver wears a HMD (Head Mounted Display) by which he can see a virtual environment made by highways, crossings, minor roads. The images on the HMD are generated by a PC upgraded with a dedicated video interface. The maneuvres from the virtual driver are sensed by transducers and the related signals are processed by a PC in order to reconstruct (by a mathematical vehicle model) the dynamics of the virtual vehicle. To estimate how much the virtual driver is involved in its task, the heart rate variability has been measured. A significant change of the sympatho-vagal has been discovered. This occurrence seems to show that the virtual reality could be an adequate tool to study the psycho-motor ability of drivers, and possibly will open a new research topic in the medical field.
A driving simulator in virtual reality
Ein Fahrsimulator in virtueller Realität
1997
12 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 3 Tabellen, 17 Quellen
Conference paper
English
A HMD Based Virtual Reality Driving Simulator
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