An Investigation Into Time Gazed At Traffic Objects By Drivers
Abstract
Several studies have considered driver’s attention for a multitude of distinct purposes, ranging from the analysis of a driver’s gaze and perception, to possible use in Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). These works typically rely on simple definitions of what it means to “see,” considering a driver gazing upon an object for a single frame as being seen. In this work, we bolster this definition by introducing the concept of time. We consider a definition of ”seen” which requires an object to be gazed upon for a set length of time, or frames, before it can be considered as seen by the driver. This is done by examining consecutive frames to find those where the driver’s gaze remains uninterrupted within a constant bounding box of a given traffic object over a series of frames. A time-considering approach to defining traffic objects as seen or unseen provides a more thoughtful and accurate measure of driver’s perception, as we avoid the naive assumption that gazing upon an object for a single frame is enough time for a driver to process the object gazed upon, which ultimately could prove vital to a wide array of ADAS and i-ADAS systems.