Distraction is a task that mentally demands and prevents focusing on the primary task, such as talking to the phone. This kind of distraction was measured using heart rate because the mental condition of the driver had initiated the autonomic nervous system through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in the activation of the increase or decrease of heart rate. The percentage of road accidents in Malaysia contributed by drivers to be more caused explicitly by cognitive distraction, such as talking to the passengers and talking to the phone while driving, which is the cause of death in Malaysia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between heart rate and the cognitive distraction level of drivers that had influenced their driving performance. The research started by developing the heart rate sensor warning system that provided warning alarms to the respondent once they were distracted. Eight participants (Mean = 24.25, SD = 0.463) participated in the experiment and set up a pulse sensor on a driving simulator. The respondent has been given the N-Back Task while driving and evaluated by NASA Task Load Index. The result showed that the heart rate and driving performance affected when the driver was cognitively distracted. The research also revealed that drivers need to put more effort towards driving to maintain good driving performance when they were cognitively distracted. Lastly, dis- traction while driving has been contributed to accidents. Thus, this device was successfully alerted the driver and increased their driving performance when they cognitively distracted. This developed device could be used to reduce the number of traffic accidents in Malaysia due to distraction while driving.
Development of Heart Rate Sensor Warning System to Estimate driver’s Cognitive Distraction Level
Lect. Notes Electrical Eng.
2022-05-15
14 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English