I-LEARNING EU RESEARCH PROJECT: APPLICATION OF MENTALIMAGERY TO THE LEARNING OF ADVANCED DRIVING SKILLS

摘要

Motor imagery is the mental process that happens when the human brain simulates motor taskwithout any evident muscular activation. Many studies have demonstrated that the brain areasactivated during a motor imagery process are correlated to those activated during theexecution of the examined task. Taking into account this scientific background, the EECfinanced project I-Learning (I-Learning: immersion/imagery enhanced learning) bases on thepromising hypothesis, not still completely investigated, that VR technologies could enhancethe effectiveness of mental practice and improve the acquisition of motor skills. In thisactivity the application of this approach to the teaching of a complex driving task has beeninvestigated, in order to define an innovative cost and time effective learning method. Severalapplications would be expected in the future, as the training of racing drivers and the teachingto drive with innovative controls.This paper describes the first year of work, which general goal has been to develop innovativetechniques for the teaching of advanced driving skills, based on the use of Virtual Realityenvironments to evoke motor imagery in training subjects. The main objectives of the Projectare to assure the best effectiveness to the driving application of I-learning techniques and toallow these techniques to be transferred to low-cost driving simulators and HW devices.A proposal for an I-learning training methodology has been formulated. The driving skillsachieved with the use of this technique will be compared with that of a traditional training, todemonstrate the validity of this approach.This document contains two main chapters, the first dedicated to the driving application of Ilearningtechniques in a Virtual reality context, and the second to the description of the Ilearningdriving protocol.