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Detection of Attentional State in Long-Distance Driving Settings Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Self-driving cars have the potential to drastically improve the efficiency and safety of personal cars. However, despite recent significant improvements in the field, fully autonomous car technology will not likely be ready in the near future. A derivative architecture, instead of full autonomy, is one where automated technology provides driver assistance, and thus incorporates a human who is expected to intervene in the case of a problem or an emergency. Humans, however, have difficulty sustaining vigilance for long periods of time, which is of concern if a human driver is expected to monitor automation for extended periods of time during long distance drives. The authors investigated a method to detect this lapse in sustained attention, otherwise known as the vigilance decrement, in long-distance driving by analyzing oxygenated hemoglobin concentrations (HbO) collected by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). A total of 27 subjects in a four hour simulated driving scenario reached an HbO plateau, and thus potentially the vigilance decrement point, in 20.55 minutes on average. Driver performance, on average, was poorer in the phase after the vigilance decrement compared to the performance before the decrement point, as measured by maximum lane deviation. Such an approach could eventually enable self-driving cars to detect the attentional state of human drivers, which is critical if the car needs to determine whether the human can intervene in a timely fashion.