Measuring driver cognitive distraction through lips and eyebrows

<span>Cognitive distraction is one of the several contributory factors in road accidents. A number of cognitive distraction detection methods have been developed. One of the most popular methods is based on physiological measurement. Head orientation, gaze rotation, blinking and pupil diameter are among popular physiological parameters that are measured for driver cognitive distraction. In this paper, lips and eyebrows are studied. These new features on human facial expression are obvious and can be easily measured when a person is in cognitive distraction. There are several types of movement on lips and eyebrows that can be captured to indicate cognitive distraction. Correlation and classification techniques are used in this paper for performance measurement and comparison. Real time driving experiment was setup and faceAPI was installed in the car to capture driver’s facial expression. Linear regression, support vector machine (SVM), static Bayesian network (SBN) and logistic regression (LR) are used in this study. Results showed that lips and eyebrows are strongly correlated and have a significant role in improving cognitive distraction detection. Dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) with different confidence of levels was also used in this study to classify whether a driver is distracted or not.</span>

European NCAP Program Developments to Address Driver Distraction, Drowsiness and Sudden Sickness

Driver distraction and drowsiness remain significant contributors to death and serious injury on our roads and are long standing issues in road safety strategies around the world. With developments in automotive technology, including driver monitoring, there are now more options available for automotive manufactures to mitigate risks associated with driver state. Such developments in Occupant Status Monitoring (OSM) are being incorporated into the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) Safety Assist protocols. The requirements for OSM technologies are discussed along two dimensions: detection difficulty and behavioral complexity. More capable solutions will be able to provide higher levels of system availability, being the proportion of time a system could provide protection to the driver, and will be able to capture a greater proportion of complex real-word driver behavior. The testing approach could initially propose testing using both a dossier of evidence provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) alongside selected use of track testing. More capable systems will not rely only on warning strategies but will also include intervention strategies when a driver is not attentive. The roadmap for future OSM protocol development could consider a range of known and emerging safety risks including driving while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, cognitive distraction, and the driver engagement requirements for supervision and take-over performance with assisted and automated driving features.

The interaction between pain and cognition: on the roles of task complexity and pain intensity

Objectives The interaction between pain and cognition includes a concurrent negative effect of pain on cognitive performance and an analgesic effect of cognitive distraction on pain experience. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the role of pain intensity and task complexity on this interaction. Methods Two experiments were conducted in healthy volunteers. In both experiments, participants completed 3 conditions: a pain only condition (consisting of the cold pressor test), a cognition only condition (consisting of the cognitive task) and a combined condition (concurrent administration of the cold pressor and cognitive task). In experiment I, participants performed one out of three possible tasks that differed in cognitive load (low, medium, high). In experiment II the parameters of the pain stimulus, induced by a cold pressor test, were adapted and only the high load cognitive task was employed. Pain scores, reaction times, and accuracy rates were recorded. Results In experiment I, cognitive distraction significantly decreased pain scores, irrespective of the cognitive load of the task. Pain did not affect cognitive performance. In experiment II, pain diminished accuracy rates. No effect of cognitive distraction on pain was observed. Individual characteristics did not noticeably influence the interaction between pain and cognition. Conclusions The results of this study suggest a two-way interaction, however no evidence for a simultaneous bidirectional relationship was found. Cognitive distraction successfully reduces pain, up until a certain point where this relationship is reversed, and pain starts to interfere with cognitive performance. This may imply that priorities shift at a certain pain-threshold, however further research should confirm this hypothesis. This study could contribute to further understanding of cognitive mechanisms related to pain perception.

A Scoping Study on Driver’s Perspective of Distracting Factors

Distracting activities while driving are common and can result in errors that threaten road users’ safety. The main objectives of this study were to investigate drivers’ perspectives of the factors contributing to distraction, determine the relative rank of types of distractions, recognize the road factors and environmental effects that make distractions more dangerous, and identify the most effective measures to reduce driver distractions. A survey was conducted to assess Jordanian drivers’ experiences with distracted driving, and what solutions they believed could be implemented to solve the problems. The study’s outcomes revealed that drivers perceive visual distractions as the most dangerous, followed by cognitive, manual, and auditory distractions, respectively. It was also found that “mobile phone texting or dialing” was ranked the top most dangerous visual and manual distracting factor. “Baby is crying or kids are fighting in the back seat” was perceived by all demographic groups as the riskiest auditory factor. Regarding cognitive distraction, four factors were perceived as the most serious, of which “Baby is crying”, “Driving while angry or sad or agitated”, “Talking on a cell phone—even a hands-free one” and “Conversing with passengers” were determined to be the top four distracting factors. The results also revealed that drivers believe that “laws and enforcement” is the most effective measure to reduce distractions while driving.

Evidence-based Smartphone Use among Engineering Students in an Academic Writing Course

The role of smartphones is vital in academia as interconnectivity in the classroom promotes learning autonomy, increases motivation, and enhances teaching and learning mobility. Using classroom research design, this study aimed to investigate the perspectives of Engineering students of smartphone use in an academic writing course. The data were collected from students enrolled in a writing course in a top-ranked Science and Technology university in Thailand. Fifty students voluntarily submitted reflections towards the end of the semester. The study was qualitative, in which inductive coding was used. The findings elicited specific situations of smartphone use in an academic writing course, for example, knowing and looking at the meaning of words, knowing the word form, finding information, taking notes, brainstorming with friends, using translation, and others. Two roles of smartphone use were coded. The first role is facilitative, which has the following functions: resource-based, cognitive-based, memory-based, output-based, collaborative-based, entertainment-based, and communicative-based. Another is the debilitative role indicating two functions, such as sources of cognitive distraction and undesirable behaviors. Interestingly, self-regulation of smartphone use in class was coded. Implications on how smartphones can be used in teaching writing were also discussed.

Quantification of the Psychoacoustic Effect of Noise from Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents the results of a study evaluating the human perception of the noise produced by four different small quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This study utilised measurements and recordings of the noise produced by the quadcopter UAVs in hover and in constant-speed flight at a fixed altitude. Measurements made using a ½″ microphone were used to calculate a range of different noise metrics for each noise event. Noise recordings were also made using a spherical microphone array (an Eigenmike system). The recordings were reproduced using a 3D sound reproduction system installed in a large anechoic chamber located at The University of Auckland. Thirty-seven participants were subjected to the recordings and asked to rate their levels of annoyance in response to the noise, and asked to perform a simple cognitive task in order to assess the level of distraction caused by the noise. This study discusses the noise levels measured during the test and how the various noise metrics relate to the annoyance ratings. It was found that annoyance strongly correlates with the sound pressure level and loudness metrics, and that there is a very strong correlation between the annoyance caused by a UAV in hover and in flyby at the same height. While some significant differences between the distraction caused by the UAV noise for different cases were observed in the cognitive distraction test, the results were inconclusive. This was likely due to a ceiling effect observed in the participants’ test scores.

Effect of Cognitive Distraction on Physiological Measures and Driving Performance in Traditional and Mixed Traffic Environments

Distracted driving is a dominant cause of traffic accidents. In addition, with the rapid development of intelligent vehicles, mixed traffic environments are expected to become more complicated with multiple types of intelligent vehicles sharing the road, thereby increasing the opportunities for distracted driving. However, the existing research on detecting driver distraction in mixed traffic environments is limited. Therefore, in this study, we analysed the effect of cognitive distraction on the driver physiological measures and driving performance in traditional and mixed traffic environments and compared the parameters extracted in the two environments. Sixty drivers were involved in the data collection, which included normal driving and two distracting tasks while driving in a simulator. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to examine the effect of cognitive distraction and traffic environments on all parameters. The results indicate that the effects of the pupil diameter, standard deviations (SDs) of the horizontal and vertical fixation angles, blink frequency, speed, SD of the lane positioning (SDLP), SD of the steering wheel angle (SDSWA), and steering entropy (SE) were significant. These findings provide a theoretical foundation for identifying the most appropriate parameters to detect cognitive distraction in traditional and mixed traffic environments to help reduce traffic accidents.

Rumination in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder: Effects of Cognitive Distraction and Relation to Social Stress Processing

According to cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD), both anticipatory processing and post-event processing are core mechanisms in disorder maintenance leading to dysfunctional coping with social situations through negative self-evaluation and increased anxiety. To date, little is known about these processes during late childhood, a critical period for disorder development. Further, it remains unclear if dysfunctional rumination in children can be altered through psychotherapeutic interventions such as cognitive distraction. In the current study, children aged 9 to 13 years with SAD and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs, each: n = 30) participated in an experimental laboratory social stress task while anticipatory processing, post-event processing, subjective anxiety, self-evaluations, and autonomic arousal (skin conductance level) were assessed. Further, the impact of a brief cognitive distraction intervention on post-event processing was assessed. Children with SAD reported more negative anticipatory and post-event processing compared to HC children. Further, negative anticipatory processing was associated with higher subjective anxiety and reduced subjective performance ratings during the social stress task. In the aftermath of the stressor, distraction led to reduced subjective anxiety in the group with SAD and lower autonomic arousal in all children but did not alter post-event processing. The current study suggests that both anticipatory and post-event processing already play a key role in the maintenance of SAD in childhood. While distraction may be beneficial in reducing prolonged subjective anxiety and autonomic arousal after social situations, more research on interventions targeting ruminative processes is needed.

Dual-task walking and automaticity after Stroke: Insights from a secondary analysis and imaging sub-study of a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To test the extent to which initial walking speed influences dual-task performance after walking intervention, hypothesising that slow walking speed affects automatic gait control, limiting executive resource availability. Design: A secondary analysis of a trial of dual-task (DT) and single-task (ST) walking interventions comparing those with good (walking speed ⩾0.8 m s−1, n = 21) and limited (walking speed <0.79 m s−1, n = 24) capacity at baseline. Setting: Community. Subjects: Adults six-months post stroke with walking impairment. Interventions: Twenty sessions of 30 minutes treadmill walking over 10 weeks with (DT) or without (ST) cognitive distraction. Good and limited groups were formed regardless of intervention received. Main measures: A two-minute walk with (DT) and without (ST) a cognitive distraction assessed walking. fNIRS measured prefrontal cortex activation during treadmill walking with (DT) and without (ST) Stroop and planning tasks and an fMRI sub-study used ankle-dorsiflexion to simulate walking. Results: ST walking improved in both groups (∆baseline: Good = 8.9 ± 13.4 m, limited = 5.3±8.9 m, Group × time = P < 0.151) but only the good walkers improved DT walking (∆baseline: Good = 10.4 ± 13.9 m, limited = 1.3 ± 7.7 m, Group × time = P < 0.025). fNIRS indicated increased ispilesional prefrontal cortex activation during DT walking following intervention ( P = 0.021). fMRI revealed greater DT cost activation for limited walkers, and increased resting state connectivity of contralesional M1 with cortical areas associated with conscious gait control at baseline. After the intervention, resting state connectivity between ipsilesional M1 and bilateral superior parietal lobe, involved in integrating sensory and motor signals, increased in the good walkers compared with limited walkers. Conclusion: In individual who walk slowly it may be difficult to improve dual-task walking ability. Registration: ISRCTN50586966