Effect of Auditory-visual Alert for Elderly Drivers using Physiological Signals

抄録

A major cause of traffic accidents is the driver's lack of awareness during driving. According to a current report on accident investigations, it was found that non-adaptation to environment changes is a major factor for many accidents. In the case of elderly drivers, many accidents have occurred as a result of non-pause stops at intersections. It is well-known that elderly drivers show wide individual differences in relation to driving experience, driving skill, recognition and judgment ability. Therefore, to reduce the occurrence of accidents involving elderly drivers, it is necessary to design an appropriate driving support system for individual elderly driver. It is even more important to evaluate the effect of such support system using objective methods as well as subjective evaluations. In this study, a driving assistance system that consisted of various auditory-visual alerts to encourage pausing and stopping at intersections was constructed for elderly drivers, and the effect of system was evaluated. While elderly drivers were approaching an intersection, physiological signals were measured and the changes after alarms were analyzed, which included an electro-cardiogram, cerebral blood flow and aortic pulse wave. The results showed that effects of the five kinds of alerts were compared in physiological signals and suggested to be possible to design the optimal support and assisting methods for elderly drivers with their different driving characteristics.