Westdrive X LoopAR

TY - JOUR

T1 - Westdrive X LoopAR

T2 - An Open-Access Virtual Reality Project in Unity for Evaluating User Interaction Methods during Takeover Requests

AU - Nezami, Farbod N

AU - Wächter, Maximilian A

AU - Maleki, Nora

AU - Spaniol, Philipp

AU - Kühne, Lea M

AU - Haas, Anke

AU - Pingel, Johannes M

AU - Tiemann, Linus

AU - Nienhaus, Frederik

AU - Keller, Lynn

AU - König, Sabine U

AU - König, Peter

AU - Pipa, Gordon

PY - 2021/3/8

Y1 - 2021/3/8

N2 - With the further development of highly automated vehicles, drivers will engage in non-related tasks while being driven. Still, drivers have to take over control when requested by the car. Here, the question arises, how potentially distracted drivers get back into the control-loop quickly and safely when the car requests a takeover. To investigate effective human-machine interactions, a mobile, versatile, and cost-efficient setup is needed. Here, we describe a virtual reality toolkit for the Unity 3D game engine containing all the necessary code and assets to enable fast adaptations to various human-machine interaction experiments, including closely monitoring the subject. The presented project contains all the needed functionalities for realistic traffic behavior, cars, pedestrians, and a large, open-source, scriptable, and modular VR environment. It covers roughly 25 km2, a package of 125 animated pedestrians, and numerous vehicles, including motorbikes, trucks, and cars. It also contains all the needed nature assets to make it both highly dynamic and realistic. The presented repository contains a C++ library made for LoopAR that enables force feedback for gaming steering wheels as a fully supported component. It also includes all necessary scripts for eye-tracking in the used devices. All the main functions are integrated into the graphical user interface of the Unity® editor or are available as prefab variants to ease the use of the embedded functionalities. This project's primary purpose is to serve as an open-access, cost-efficient toolkit that enables interested researchers to conduct realistic virtual reality research studies without costly and immobile simulators. To ensure the accessibility and usability of the mentioned toolkit, we performed a user experience report, also included in this paper.

AB - With the further development of highly automated vehicles, drivers will engage in non-related tasks while being driven. Still, drivers have to take over control when requested by the car. Here, the question arises, how potentially distracted drivers get back into the control-loop quickly and safely when the car requests a takeover. To investigate effective human-machine interactions, a mobile, versatile, and cost-efficient setup is needed. Here, we describe a virtual reality toolkit for the Unity 3D game engine containing all the necessary code and assets to enable fast adaptations to various human-machine interaction experiments, including closely monitoring the subject. The presented project contains all the needed functionalities for realistic traffic behavior, cars, pedestrians, and a large, open-source, scriptable, and modular VR environment. It covers roughly 25 km2, a package of 125 animated pedestrians, and numerous vehicles, including motorbikes, trucks, and cars. It also contains all the needed nature assets to make it both highly dynamic and realistic. The presented repository contains a C++ library made for LoopAR that enables force feedback for gaming steering wheels as a fully supported component. It also includes all necessary scripts for eye-tracking in the used devices. All the main functions are integrated into the graphical user interface of the Unity® editor or are available as prefab variants to ease the use of the embedded functionalities. This project's primary purpose is to serve as an open-access, cost-efficient toolkit that enables interested researchers to conduct realistic virtual reality research studies without costly and immobile simulators. To ensure the accessibility and usability of the mentioned toolkit, we performed a user experience report, also included in this paper.

KW - Adaptation, Physiological

KW - Automobiles

KW - Humans

KW - Motor Vehicles

KW - Pedestrians

KW - Virtual Reality

U2 - 10.3390/s21051879

DO - 10.3390/s21051879

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 33800215

VL - 21

JO - SENSORS-BASEL

JF - SENSORS-BASEL

SN - 1424-8220

IS - 5

M1 - 1879

ER -