Mitigating Driver's Distraction: Automotive Head-Up Display and Gesture Recognition System

Lagoo, Ramesh; Charissis, Vassilis; Harrison, David K. · 2019 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1109/mce.2019.2923896

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Summary

This paper addresses the critical safety issue of driver distraction caused by modern in-vehicle infotainment systems, particularly Head-Down Displays (HDDs) that require drivers to divert their gaze from the road. The authors propose a novel Head-Up Display (HUD) system integrated with gesture recognition to allow drivers to interact with secondary tasks—specifically text messaging and navigation updates—without removing their eyes from the road or their hands from the steering wheel. The system is designed to be retrofittable to existing vehicles, addressing the large market of used cars. The study employed a high-fidelity Virtual Reality Driving Simulator featuring a full-scale Mercedes A-Class vehicle. Twenty licensed drivers (aged 20–55) participated in the evaluation. The experimental design compared the proposed HUD system against a traditional HDD touchscreen interface. Participants underwent a familiarization run followed by two randomized simulation scenarios: one using the HDD and one using the HUD. Both scenarios involved a rear-collision risk where drivers received four snippets of incoming information (text messages and navigation warnings) timed to coincide with increasing collision probability. The HUD interface utilized a minimalist design with three icons and a Leap Motion sensor for gesture recognition, allowing users to select options via a simple "point and air-click" gesture projected onto the windshield. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in safety metrics. Drivers using the HUD experienced a 45% reduction in collision occurrences compared to those using the HDD. Specifically, the probability of collision dropped from an average of 80% with the HDD to 35% with the HUD. Subjective feedback indicated that 75% of users accepted the technology, citing lower mental demand (75% rated it as low or very low) and physical demand (65% rated it as low or very low). Although 70% of drivers felt they were driving faster with the HUD, their actual speed increase was marginal, and the dramatic drop in collisions suggests improved situational awareness. The gesture recognition interface achieved a 90% success rate for icon selection, a significant improvement over earlier trials with more complex interfaces. The study concludes that combining HUD projection with simple gesture recognition effectively mitigates driver distraction by maintaining visual and tactile focus on the primary driving task. The findings support the potential for this technology to be adopted in both new vehicle designs and as aftermarket retrofits. Future work aims to expand the user base for more robust statistical analysis and to develop additional interface features that can engage co-drivers, further reducing the cognitive load on the primary driver.

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Topics

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• hud ar windshield
• visual
• in vehicle displays
• infotainment
• distraction detection algorithms

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• Applied Guidance: design guidelines
• Methodological Resource: tool software
• Theoretical Contribution: conceptual framework