Effects of method of directional representation and its location on performance in directional discrimination task

Recently, the number of the death toll due to traffic accidents tends to decrease. In spite of this, the pedestrian-related traffic accidents tend to increase. As the number of traffic accidents related to pedestrians is increasing more and more, it is necessary to secure safety of pedestrians. It is off course important for pedestrian and drivers to observe traffic regulations and try to secure safety by themselves. However, only this is not enough to decrease traffic accidents related to pedestrian. Therefore, more and more efforts are needed especially from the viewpoint of automotive technology itself. Automotive manufacturers try to equip an automotive cockpit with pedestrian detection system and contribute to the reduction of traffic accidents related to pedestrians. This study aims at obtaining basic knowledge for designing more effective pedestrian detection system. A basic study to establish an effective warning presentation method, an attempt was made to verify that the directional judgment is faster using the location information than using the shape of arrow. It was also examined that the directional judgment time gets longer as the location is far away from the fixation point. It tended that the discrimination at the fixation point tended to be longer. The discrimination time tended to be longer with the increase in eccentricity. Moreover, the location of counterclockwise 90° led to the longest discrimination time.