Image Characteristics and Their Effect on Driving Simulator Validity

Due to financial and computational limitations, the image quality presented in driving simulators is often a trade-off between resolution, pixel density and field of view. The current study examined this trade-off by investigating the effect of image resolution and horizontal field of view on the validity of the Leeds Driving Simulator. There were three levels of pixel density: low (3.6 arc min per pixel), high (2.6 arc min per pixel) and real world, and four levels of field of view: narrow (50 deg), medium (120 deg), wide (230 deg) and real world. Results seemed to show that widening the field of view improved the validity of speed choice and lane position between simulated and real world driving conditions, whilst there was no significant effect of image resolution.