A Saliency-Based Search Model: Application of the Saliency Map for Driver-Vehicle Interfaces

摘要

Driver distraction is a leading cause of motor vehicle crashes. As more in-vehicle systems are developed,they represent increasing potential for distraction. Designers of these systems require a quantitative way toassess their distraction potential that does not involve time-consuming test track or simulator testing. Acritical contribution to driver distraction concerns the search time for items in an in-vehicle system display.This study tests the saliency map’s ability to predict search time, and proposes a potential application of thesaliency map in assessing driver distraction. Empirical data for search tasks were collected and used to testa modified driver model based on the saliency map. The results show that the modified saliency map canpredict search time, and suggest that the driver model could be used to understand how design featuresinfluence the bottom-up visual search process. More broadly, such a model can complement guidelines anduser testing to help designers to incorporate human factors considerations earlier in the design process.