The principal objective is the commercial development of a virtual driving-world simulator to assess driving performance and rehabilitate driving skills. By using innovation to integrate affordable emerging technologies, driving simulation will be applied where it has not been possible before. This virtual driving-world simulator will provide as close to on-road driving as possible through the use of wide field-of-view driving scenes derived from actual, real world video images. The ability to drive is an important issue in maintaining the independence and mobility of the older person. A large percentage of accidents involving older drivers are attributable to informational causes (information intake, processing, decision-making). The use of simulated driving to assess this age- related information-processing has been demonstrated. The virtual driving-world simulator will concentrate on testing this information processing of the driver. During Phase II of this grant, the applicants will develop a virtual driving-world editing system, develop a complete prototype simulator, and construct the necessary image database. This simulator will emphasize conditions which stress the information processing to make critical driving decisions. Also, conditions which stress the information intake by the driver such as dawn, dusk, and nighttime will be included.
