Tactile Working Memory Capacity of Users Who Are Blind in an Electronic Travel Aid Application with a Vibration Belt

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) can increase the safety and comfort of pedestrians who have a visual impairment by displaying obstacles through a vibrotactile navigation belt. Building a complete picture of relevant obstacles and finding a safe route requires ETA users to integrate vibrotactile cues over time and space in their tactile working...

The impact of vehicle appearance and vehicle behavior on pedestrian interaction with autonomous vehicles

In this paper, we present the preliminary results of a study that aims to investigate the role of an approaching vehicle's behavior and outer appearance in determining pedestrians' decisions while crossing a street. Concerning appearance, some vehicles are designed to look more assertive than others, and it is believed that vehicle appearance...

Quantifying the effectiveness of ITS in improving safety of VRUs

This paper presents the results of a safety impact assessment, providing quantitative estimates of the safety impacts of ten intelligent transport systems (ITS) which were designed to improve safety, mobility and comfort of vulnerable road users (VRUs). The evaluation method originally developed to assess safety impacts of ITS for cars was now...

Safety, mobility and comfort assessment methodologies of intelligent transport systems for vulnerable road users

Introduction: This paper describes the modification and development of methodologies to assess the impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications for Vulnerable Road users (VRUs) in the domains of safety, mobility and comfort. This effort was carried out in the context of the VRUITS project whose aim was to produce results at the EU...

Assessment methodologies for forward looking integrated pedestrian systems and further extension to cyclist safety: Experimental and virtual testing for pedestrian protection

Pedestrians and cyclists are the most unprotected road users and their injury risk in case of accidents is significantly higher than for other road users. The understanding of the influence and sensitivity between important variables describing a pedestrian crash is key for the development of more efficient and reliable safety systems. This...

Vibrotactile in-vehicle navigation system

A vibrotactile display, consisting ofeight vibrating elements or tactors mounted in a driver's seat, was tested in a driving simulator. Participants drove with visual, tactile and multimodal navigation displays through a built-up area. Workload and the reaction time to navigation messages were measured for normal and high workload conditions....

Improving pedestrian safety using numerical human models

Development of a 3.5 kg pedestrian head form impactor

Pedestrian head form impactors are test devices simulating the human head, used for evaluating pedestrian protection afforded by a passenger car front during a pedestrian-to-car-collision. A 3.5 kg head form impactor was developed representing the head of a range of humans between a 6 year old child and a small female. The technical...

Development of computer simulation models for pedestrian subsystem impact tests

The European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC/WG10 and WG17) proposed three component subsystem tests for cars to assess pedestrian protection. The objective of this study is to develop computer simulation models of the EEVC pedestrian subsystem tests. These models are available to develop a car confirming the pedestrian subsystem test...