Measuring visual distraction in driving: The potential of head movement analysis

Owing to several reasons (e.g. changing light conditions) the measurement of eye movement behaviour is often unstable and data loss can occur. It is investigated whether head movement recording could be an alternative to eye movement analysis for measuring distraction through visual secondary tasks in driving. During a 1-h drive in the driving simulator, 16 participants conducted a self-paced menu system task that was designed according to design principles for commercial in-vehicle information systems. Influence of visual distraction was analysed and compared for parameters of eye and head movement. Parameters like percent road centre for head and eye movement and proportion of head movement were calculated. The results show that head movement analysis can differentiate nearly as well between distracted and attentive driving as parameters based on eye movement recording in this task context. It is concluded that head movement analysis seems to be a promising alternative for assessing drivers´ distraction under certain circumstances.