Incorporating the Driver's Focus of Attention into Automotive Applications in Real Traffic and in Simulator Setups

In this research we present an application for analyzing a driver's visual focus of attention in both real-life traffic and simulator setups. For this purpose we use the EyeVIUS [1] system featuring stationary eye-tracking and head-tracking functionality. In our real-life experiments, three dimensional representations of both the vehicle's interior and the outside environment are used. A real-time evaluation concerning the object in the driver's visual focus in these environments is then performed. We describe the functionality and the accuracy of our system, which is integrated in a fully functional vehicle in a real traffic environment. Considering the simulator setup, a seamless integration of our system into the OpenDS [2] driving simulator allows to automatically determine whether a user is engaged with virtual content of the simulator or focused on objects in the real world.