Eyes, Brains, and Autos

Abstract

ision disorders pose a driving safety risk and commonly arise at the level of the eye in cataract, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy and at the level of the brain in advancing age, stroke, and Alzheimer disease and related conditions. These disorders can increase driver safety errors because of reduced visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and visual fields. Aging and brain lesions, especially, can also reduce the useful field of view in drivers with normal visual fields; increase the attentional blink and change blindness; impair perception of structure and depth from visual motion cues and motion parallax; decrease perception of heading from optical flow and detection of impending collisions; and increase the chance of getting lost. Better tools are needed for detecting and alerting visually impaired drivers who are at greatest risk for a crash. These drivers can be assessed with a state-administered road test, instrumented vehicles, and driving simulators. Emerging safety interventions include optical and electronic visual aids for visually impaired drivers, coupled with new vehicle designs, onboard warning devices, and reflective clothing that highlights the motion of pedestrians. BACKGROUND AND CURRENT POLICIES From the Roy J.

Driving Simulation as a Performance-based Test of Visual Impairment in Glaucoma

“…Dynamic visual, cognitive and information processing skills needed for driver fitness are not usually measured or assessed clinically, despite being recommended by the American Academy of Ophthalmology Driving Assessment Policy Statement and by the American Medical Association Physician's Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers. 62 However, as no single, perceptual, cognitive or psychomotor test captures all these domains, eyecare practitioners usually simply document the presence of ocular disease, visual acuity and visual field impairment and do not routinely evaluate dynamic perceptual and cognitive abilities associated with driving. It is clear that estimating functional vision for driving goes beyond static measures of vision and structural alterations caused by eye diseases, and involves dynamic cognitive processing of visual information, which controls driving decisions and psychomotor behaviors.…”

A Novel Active Heads-Up Display for Driver Assistance

“…Vision within the macula has the highest visual acuity, which is necessary for reading, watching television, driving, and any activity where visual detail is of primary importance. The peripheral vision extends beyond it and has good motion detection and temporal resolution [14].…”

Driving with Visual Field Loss: An Exploratory Simulation Study

“…The binocular human visual field normally extends horizontally over approximately 180 degrees. The peripheral visual fields have low visual acuity but good temporal resolution and motion detection (Rizzo & Kellison, 2004).…”

“…Drivers constantly scan the environment for wayfinding, vehicle and hazard avoidance, and lane maintenance (Bhise & Rockwell, 1971). The visual field is the total area from which a viewer can detect stimuli in the visual field when the eyes are focused on a central forward point (Rizzo & Kellison, 2004). Normal aging or diseases associated with the eye can result in deterioration in vision.…”