EyeSync - Real Time Integration of an Eye Tracker in a Driving Simulator Environment

Motor vehicles crashes are the leading cause of injury and death of US teens. Driving simulators offer a way to safely expose drivers to specific events in a controlled and repeatable manner. They empower researchers by enabling them to compare different groups and driving behaviors and assess the cognitive and attention skills that are essential to safe driving.

Classically, assessment of eye glances and gaze duration relies largely on time-consuming data reduction and video coding. In addition, the synchronization of eye tracker and simulator data is essential to a valid analysis of the eye glances patterns in relation to the driving scenario. To better understand and quantify eye glances in relation to a driving scene, Eyesync was developed as a synchronization bridge between an eye tracker and a driving simulator. It allows the real time synchronization and logging of eye tracking and simulator data. The design of the software is presented in this paper. The result of this synchronization is a merged video which combines driving simulator and eye tracker video streams. The Eyesync software was used in a driving simulator study to assess the effect of an intervention on a group of 60 teenage drivers. Data collection for this study in on going. Researchers will assess the benefits of EyeSync: (1) real time integration, producing a single spreadsheet and video stream of simulator and eye tracking data, (2) automated analysis of glances in relation with the driving scenario.