PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS TO IDENTIFY DRIVER’S STATUS BY USING ‘MENTAL EFFORT’ RELATIVE TO ‘MENTAL DEMAND’ DURING HIGHWAY DRIVING

Abstract

Psycho-physiological parameters have been investigated in many studies. However, due to different experimental conditions, it was difficult to use them collectively to identify unsafe driving in highway. Therefore, the aim of this study was to find psycho-physiological parameters measuring mental workload in a controlled experimental condition and to establish the basis of measuring the state of driver during highway driving. In order to find psycho-physiological parameters quantitatively and consistently representing ‘mental effort’ at various ‘demand’ conditions, an experiment was performed during actual highway driving. A number of accident and geometrical conditions of the highway were used to categorize the road ‘demand’ into low, moderate and high level. Seventy subjects participated in the experiment. A test vehicle was equipped with measuring devices. In results, ten parameters were selected as follows: the slope of β/α from the left and right frontal lobe, the slope of θ-wave from the central and the parietal lobe, the slope of horizontal and vertical eye movement, skin temperature and skin conductance, and the amplitude of horizontal eye movement and skin conductance.