Biomedical subjects

Y Ian Noy

Publications and source records attributed to Y Ian Noy.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

An on-road assessment of cognitive distraction: impacts on drivers' visual behavior and braking performance.

In this on-road experiment, drivers performed demanding cognitive tasks while driving in city traffic. All task interactions were carried out in hands-free mode so that the 21 drivers were not required to take their visual attention away from the road or to manually interact with a device inside the vehicle. Visual behavior and vehicle control were assessed while they drove an 8 km city route under three conditions: no additional task, easy cognitive task and difficult cognitive task. Changes in visual behavior were most apparent when performance between the No Task and Difficult Task conditions were compared. When looking outside of the vehicle, drivers spent more time looking centrally ahead and spent less time looking to the areas in the periphery. Drivers also reduced their visual monitoring of the instruments and mirrors, with some drivers abandoning these tasks entirely. When approaching and driving through intersections, drivers made fewer inspection glances to traffic lights compared to the No Task condition and their scanning of intersection areas to the right was also reduced. Vehicle control was also affected; during the most difficult cognitive tasks there were more occurrences of hard braking. Although hands-free designs for telematics devices are intended to reduce or eliminate the distraction arising from manual operation of these units, the potential for cognitive distraction associated with their use must also be considered and appropriately assessed. These changes are captured in measures of drivers' visual behavior.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2005

Effects of voice technology on test track driving performance: implications for driver distraction.

This work compares the degradation in driving performance associated with secondary tasks performed with voice-based and visual/manual interfaces, including radio tuning, phone dialing, and more complex tasks involving a sequence of interactions with an in-vehicle computer system. Twenty-one participants drove an instrumented vehicle while performing a combination of car-following, peripheral target detection, and secondary tasks on a closed test track. Drivers compensated for increased task demands associated with secondary tasks by increasing their following distance. Performing secondary tasks also resulted in significant decrements to vehicle control, target detection, and car-following performance. The voice-based interface helped reduce the distracting effects of secondary task performance. Modest improvements were observed for measures of vehicle control and target detection but not for car following. The results indicated that performing in-vehicle tasks required diversion of both peripheral (visual and manual) and attentional (cognitive) resources from driving. The voice-based interface reduced the peripheral impairment but did not appreciably reduce the attentional impairment. Actual or potential applications of this research include improvements to the design of invehicle information systems and the development of evaluation protocols to assess their distraction potential.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Task interruptability and duration as measures of visual distraction.

Tasks that are easily interrupted under intermittent viewing conditions may be less distracting while driving because they allow drivers greater control over task sharing decisions. This paper investigates the reliability and sensitivity of the occlusion paradigm as a potential means of measuring task interruptability and distraction. Twenty-four participants, between the ages of 21 and 34, completed two separate experimental sessions. In one session they performed three in-vehicle tasks (a radio-tuning task and two simulated visual search tasks) under occlusion and while unoccluded. In another session, participants completed the same in-vehicle tasks while driving in a simulator, without occlusion. The tasks did not differ in terms of total task time, yet significant differences were found using the occlusion paradigm and subjective workload ratings. Task interruptability and task duration both need to be considered when assessing the suitability of tasks for time-sharing with driving.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Usability issues concerning child restraint system harness design.

A study was conducted to assess usability issues relating to child restraint system (CRS) harness design. Four convertible child restraint systems representing a wide variety of design features were used. Forty-two participants installed two child test dummies in both forward- and rear-facing configurations either inside or outside a test vehicle. Observer-scored checklists determined the degree to which each harness was installed correctly. Participant-scored questionnaires evaluated the 'ease-of-use' of various design features. While the percentage of correct installations exceeded 83% for all designs when installed in the forward-facing configuration, in the rear-facing position (that intended for children under 9-10 kg), there was a significant (between 65 and 89%) percentage of incorrect installations for all models. This finding is of particular interest and may be indicative of a more generalized problem with 'convertible' CRS designs when they are used in the rear-facing configuration. Furthermore, while certain design features were perceived by users as providing significantly better protection in the event of a collision, these also tended to be the features that were misused most often. The benefits and costs of various design features are discussed, and a method to test harness design usability is presented.

Adult↗