A Visual Search Model for In-Vehicle Interface Design

As in-vehicle infotainment systems gain new functionality, their potential to distract drivers increases. Searching for an item on interface is a critical concern because a poorly designed interface that draws drivers’ attention to less important items can extend drivers’ search for items of interest and pull attention away from roadway events. This potential can be assessed in simulator-based experiments, but computational models of driver behavior might enable designers to assess this potential and revise their designs more quickly than if they have to wait weeks to compile human subjects data. One such model, reported in this paper, predicts the sequence of eye fixations of drivers based on a Boolean Map-based Saliency model augmented with top-down feature bias. Comparing the model predictions to empirical data shows that the model can predict search time, especially in cluttered scenes and when a target item is highlighted. We also describe the integration of this model into a web application (http://distraction.engr.wisc.edu/) that can help assess the distraction potential of interface designs.