Assessment of Driver���s Arousal State to Test Highway Drowsiness Prevention Facilities

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop an evaluation method that can determine whether a highway drowsiness prevention facilities suitably induced driver���s arousal state. Background: In August 2010, Korea transportation safety authority investigated the cause among 1,000 drivers with traffic accidents. As a result, drowsy driving covered the highest percentage of 36.7%. Therefore, in order to reduce the number of traffic accidents, the preventing of drowsy driving is essential. Method: Based on the reviewing research, we define a new terminology, ���Arousal shift���, which is the intermediate stage between drowsiness and arousal. In addition, we used the psychophysiological and behavioral parameters of driver, which can determine the level of drowsiness. We collected driver���s psychophysiological and performance data by using a virtual driving simulator. We computed the correlation between KSS and collected data. Results: We choose the variables showing high correlationship with KSS score, and suggested a multiple regression model that could predict the drowsiness of driver. In addition, we suggested a probabilistic approach to decide driver���s state in terms of KSS. Conclusion: We showed the possibility to find a method of preventing the driver���s drowsiness by defining ���arousal shift���. Due to the 60% of explanatory power of model, the practical field application needs to be done with a group of drivers showing actual change in PKSS