Reducing aggression on our roads: testing a comprehensive model of aggressive driving. This project aims to increase our understanding of driver aggression, its causes and how it can be prevented. This will inform development of more effective educational and enforcement measures to reduce driver aggression and resultant road crashes, which have significant social and economic impacts on the Australian community.
Driving in the Fog: Speed Illusions Caused by Variations of Object Contrast. Accurate judgement of the speed of 3D motion is essential to many real world tasks, from driving a vehicle to playing sports. Illusions of perceived speed can occur when the range of brightness levels (ie. the contrast) is reduced, such as in fog, when suffering from cataracts, or when using some sunglasses. This raises issues of safety for drivers (pilots/captains etc). It is expected that advances in the understanding ....Driving in the Fog: Speed Illusions Caused by Variations of Object Contrast. Accurate judgement of the speed of 3D motion is essential to many real world tasks, from driving a vehicle to playing sports. Illusions of perceived speed can occur when the range of brightness levels (ie. the contrast) is reduced, such as in fog, when suffering from cataracts, or when using some sunglasses. This raises issues of safety for drivers (pilots/captains etc). It is expected that advances in the understanding of these effects will inform road safety policy and practice to benefit drivers and pedestrians and to guide the manufacturing of eyewear and display devices (eg. military heads-up-displays). It is also anticipated that this project will be able to answer the much-debated question 'What colour should cricket balls be?'
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The initiation and control of action in motor vehicle driving. Every time we pull up to a traffic light or overtake another vehicle our brain is making a whole series of critical decisions about when and how to carry out the manoeuvre accurately and safely. This project seeks to better understand the processes involved. Using the latest, high fidelity GPS and accelerometer technology, highly accurate measurements of driver behaviour and vehicle dynamics will be made in a real vehicle. Understand ....The initiation and control of action in motor vehicle driving. Every time we pull up to a traffic light or overtake another vehicle our brain is making a whole series of critical decisions about when and how to carry out the manoeuvre accurately and safely. This project seeks to better understand the processes involved. Using the latest, high fidelity GPS and accelerometer technology, highly accurate measurements of driver behaviour and vehicle dynamics will be made in a real vehicle. Understanding when and how we carry out these types of basic tasks will play a central role in future brake, suspension and steering system design; will help guide the specifications of road and road sign design; and will help motivate additions or alterations to current driver training programmes.Read moreRead less
Characterisation and Prevention of Vibration-Induced Drowsiness in Drivers. The present CIs have demonstrated that vibrational frequencies of 4-7 Hz entrain brainwaves associated with the onset of sleep. Our unpublished pilot data show that higher vibrational frequencies can restore alertness. Thus future vehicle design could dampen 3-8Hz vibrations while higher frequency vibrations could counteract drowsiness or stimulate alertness. This project aims to: i) develop novel equivalent drowsiness c ....Characterisation and Prevention of Vibration-Induced Drowsiness in Drivers. The present CIs have demonstrated that vibrational frequencies of 4-7 Hz entrain brainwaves associated with the onset of sleep. Our unpublished pilot data show that higher vibrational frequencies can restore alertness. Thus future vehicle design could dampen 3-8Hz vibrations while higher frequency vibrations could counteract drowsiness or stimulate alertness. This project aims to: i) develop novel equivalent drowsiness contours for the effects of physical vibration on driver drowsiness that will form the basis of a new industry standard for transportation safety; ii) develop an innovative vibration regime to improve alertness. This research will reduce transportation injuries and deaths by enabling the design of safer transport vehicles.Read moreRead less
Managing the risks posed by Artificial General Intelligence. It is widely acknowledged that a failure to implement appropriate controls for the next generation of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), could have catastrophic consequences, including in the worst case - the extinction of the human race. This research aims to forecast the risks associated with AGI systems and identify the controls required to ensure that risks and existential threats are minimised. The exp ....Managing the risks posed by Artificial General Intelligence. It is widely acknowledged that a failure to implement appropriate controls for the next generation of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), could have catastrophic consequences, including in the worst case - the extinction of the human race. This research aims to forecast the risks associated with AGI systems and identify the controls required to ensure that risks and existential threats are minimised. The expected outputs will provide designers, organisations, regulators and governments with a framework to support the design, implementation, and management of safe and efficient AGI systems. This will ensure that the potential far-reaching benefits of AGI are realised without undue threat to society.Read moreRead less
Rod-cone interaction under mesopic illumination. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency and traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian traffic fatalities occur under dim light. The research program uses a frontier technology to determine how vision is degraded under dim lighting and provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and perform ....Rod-cone interaction under mesopic illumination. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency and traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian traffic fatalities occur under dim light. The research program uses a frontier technology to determine how vision is degraded under dim lighting and provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and performance. This work will help to evaluate new energy-efficient lighting systems and optimise traffic lighting for early recognition of obstacles and dangerous situations. Read moreRead less
Functional Assessment of Head-eye Coordination during Driving. 238 people per 100,000 population were hospitalized and 9 people per 100,000 died as a result of road-transport related injury in Australia in 2002. We will address this issue by assessing the head eye coordination strategies for young drivers, for proficient drivers and for aged drivers to determine those behaviors and strategies that are associated with various levels of performance. This insight could be affectively communicated t ....Functional Assessment of Head-eye Coordination during Driving. 238 people per 100,000 population were hospitalized and 9 people per 100,000 died as a result of road-transport related injury in Australia in 2002. We will address this issue by assessing the head eye coordination strategies for young drivers, for proficient drivers and for aged drivers to determine those behaviors and strategies that are associated with various levels of performance. This insight could be affectively communicated to others and would provide the basis for educational material and methods that would improve operator skill, safety, and performance. These individual improvements would provide overall benefits such as improved transport efficiency, reduced accident rates, saved lives and a reduction in related social costs.Read moreRead less
Psychophysical Assessment of Receptoral and Post-Receptoral Visual Function. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency lighting and road traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian road traffic fatalities occur under dim lighting conditions. My data will be unique, as it will provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and performance. This ....Psychophysical Assessment of Receptoral and Post-Receptoral Visual Function. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency lighting and road traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian road traffic fatalities occur under dim lighting conditions. My data will be unique, as it will provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and performance. This work will help to optimise road traffic lighting for the early recognition of obstacles and dangerous situations. The research program will make important scientific contributions to understanding human visual function and performance at dim light levels.Read moreRead less
The estimation of vehicle speed under varying environmental and individual state conditions. Using innovative occlusion and training research designs on a driving The proposed project examines the contribution of a mental model approach to the perception of time and speed of own and other vehicles using innovative occlusion and training research designs on a driving simulator. Participants will be asked to make time and speed estimations under varying environmetal conditions such as urban and ru ....The estimation of vehicle speed under varying environmental and individual state conditions. Using innovative occlusion and training research designs on a driving The proposed project examines the contribution of a mental model approach to the perception of time and speed of own and other vehicles using innovative occlusion and training research designs on a driving simulator. Participants will be asked to make time and speed estimations under varying environmetal conditions such as urban and rural scenes, straight and curved roads, and with and without engine noise, and under drug states. The generality of the findings will be tested on an instrumented car. The project will increase our understanding of factors influencing speed perception, a critical component of safe driving behaviour.Read moreRead less
Understanding and improving sustained attention under vigilance conditions. This project aims to address a major global challenge caused by technological advances: human operators have to monitor computer-control (e.g., in autonomous vehicles, rail and airtraffic control) but sustaining attention is very difficult under these conditions. Developing innovative behavioural and neural methods, this internationally collaborative project bridges basic and applied science to understand lapses of atten ....Understanding and improving sustained attention under vigilance conditions. This project aims to address a major global challenge caused by technological advances: human operators have to monitor computer-control (e.g., in autonomous vehicles, rail and airtraffic control) but sustaining attention is very difficult under these conditions. Developing innovative behavioural and neural methods, this internationally collaborative project bridges basic and applied science to understand lapses of attention under monitoring conditions. It creates a novel intervention, based on brain activity patterns, to improve performance. Outcomes will increase our neural understanding of attention and lay a foundation for a novel system to detect lapses of attention in high-risk environments, preventing errors before they occur.Read moreRead less