Text Reading and Text Input Assessment in Support of the NHTSA Visual-Manual Driver Distraction Guidelines

The aim of this project was to provide data supporting the development of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA’s) proposed Visual-Manual Driver Distraction Guidelines’ text entry and text reading specification. The purpose of the study was to examine the two test protocols recommended in the proposed NHTSA Guidelines: the driving simulator and occlusion goggle protocols, under different conditions of text type, text length, and ambient text conditions. In the driving simulator, the total eyes off road time (TSOT) measures the number of seconds drivers eyes left the road to complete the text entry and text reading tasks. Similarly, the total shutter open time (TSOT) measures the total time the participants could view the display through the occlusion goggles. The results of the study indicated that the use of a TSOT of 12 seconds was more appropriate than 9 seconds. In addition, the mean ratio between TSOT and TEORT for the Text Entry task, across all text length and ambient text conditions, was 1.03. The corresponding mean ratio for the Text Reading task was 1.09. NHTSA concluded that these ratios suggest there is no need for a field or inflation factor when comparing TSOT values to TEORT. In summary, the driving simulator and occlusion goggle protocols produce consistent indicators regarding the distraction potential of text entry and text reading tasks.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NVS/Crash%20Avoidance/Technical%20Publications/2013/811820.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Westat

  1650 Research Boulevard
  Rockville, MD  United States  20850
• Authors:
  • Boyle, L N
  • Lee, J D
  • Peng, Y
  • Ghazizadeh, M
  • Wu, Yujia
  • Miller, E
  • Jenness, J
• Publication Date: 2013-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 73p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Distraction; Driving; Driving simulators; Eye movements; Guidelines; Highway safety; Specifications; Text messaging
• Identifier Terms: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01493269
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 811 820
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-11-D-00237
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 6 2013 8:57AM