지능형 자동차의 안전 경고음에 대한 고령운전자의 반응 특성

Abstract

Recent technological advances made a vehicle more intelligent to increase safety and comfort. An intelligent vehicle provides drivers with safety warning information through audible sounds, visual displays, and tactile devices. However, elderly drivers have been known to decrease the physical and cognitive abilities such as muscular strength, hearing, eyesight, short term memory, and spatial perception. Therefore, possible age-related deficits should be considered to design an effective warning system. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of advancing age on response performance on audible safety warnings which are widely used for alerting driving hazards. In order to understand the effect of age-related hearing loss and movement slowing, three sound characteristics (frequency, intensity, and period) and three age groups (younger, middle, and older) are considered. Data was drawn from 38 drivers who drove a simulated rural road in a driving simulator. Experimental results show that age influences driver's response performance. In conclusion, the appropriate range of a warning sound is suggested.