Eye-Glance Frequency as a Function of Driver's Intent to Change Lanes

Video capturing technique is useful for detecting driver's visual behavior and their intent to perform a driving task. Video analysis helps in understanding driver intentions and roadway distractions by looking at the driver's eye positions while s/he is performing his primary and/or secondary driving task. Conducting research on a driver simulator is preferred by many researchers as it provides a safe environment to analyze various roadway conditions. In this study, driver simulator is used to collect data from ten subjects (7 males and 3 females) to determine whether eye glance behavior is affected by secondary tasks while driving. Subjects are instructed to drive in a highway scenario with three co-passengers in the car and also alone, while changing lanes whenever possible. Eye glance of the driver is observed for 90 seconds for each scenario and the compared result implies that driving with co passengers increased eye glance rapidly. An overall average frequency of 0.1145 is obtained based on the number of times a subject actually changed lanes and number of glances in 90 seconds in both scenarios. Based on this frequency, an algorithm is designed to predict driver's intention to change lanes.