Heart rate detection for driver monitoring systems
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Summary
Biondi, Cooper, Strayer, and colleagues evaluated whether mean heart rate from a chest-strap monitor can index cognitive workload during voice-IVIS interactions on suburban roads. 136 participants (72 female, ages 21-70 across three age bands) drove ten 2015 model-year vehicles in single-task, voice-IVIS, and OSPAN conditions across two sessions a week apart while wearing a Zephyr BioHarness 3. Average heart rate increased reliably with cognitive demand (single-task < IVIS < OSPAN) and tracked the workload pattern obtained from DRT and NASA-TLX in the parent study, supporting heart rate as a viable physiological proxy for driver-monitoring systems.
Key finding
Mean heart rate rises monotonically with cognitive demand across single-task, voice-IVIS, and OSPAN driving, recommending it as an unobtrusive physiological workload signal.
Methodology
On-road instrumented-vehicle study across ten 2015 vehicles; within-subjects single-task vs. voice-IVIS vs. OSPAN with chest-strap heart-rate recording across two sessions one week apart.
Sample size: 136
Quality score: 5 / 5