Education and demonstration – Vehicle operator instruction or testing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-18
2004-01-20
Cheng, Joe H. (Department: 3713)
Education and demonstration
Vehicle operator instruction or testing
C434S062000, C434S064000, C434S305000, C340S435000, C342S070000, C701S301000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06679702
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle-based headway collision avoidance trainer. The invention is particularly useful for instructing student drivers to maintain safe following distances behind other motor vehicles while the student is behind the wheel of an ordinary driver education vehicle. The combined effects of driver, vehicle, and roadway factors determine safe following distances according to physical laws, which are not intuitive and not easily separable in everyday driving. For example, slow student reaction-time, hard-braking by a leading-vehicle, and wet roadways, require that the student maintain a longer headway distance. In using the trainer, actual or simulated driver, vehicle, and roadway conditions are independently selectable by the driving instructor, the combination of which is used to compute a danger of headway collision distance. According to the present invention, unique instructional auditory and visual displays are attended by the student driver, and controls and displays are used by the instructor, which are specifically intended for teaching headway safety in the environment of a moving vehicle.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, rear-end collisions are a leading cause of injury, death, and loss of property. Rear-end crashes involving passenger-vehicles was the second leading crash type in 1993, representing 26% of all crashes. For single-unit and combination-unit trucks, the rear-end collision was the most prevalent of all specific crash categories, representing 26% and 19% of all crashes, respectively. However, younger drivers are the highest risk group. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading case of death for drivers 15 to 20 years of age. Drivers 15 to 19 years of age were nearly three times more likely to strike another vehicle, and nearly twice as likely to be struck. The challenge for drivers is that traffic density has increased and there are greater numbers of commercial trucks and sport utility vehicles on roadways. Large vehicles can block the view of traffic ahead of the large vehicle, ordinarily used to maintain a safe distance. In this regard, the present invention can help reduce rear-end crashes by providing an in-vehicle environment for students to acquire the knowledge and learn behaviors that result in safe following distances.
2. Prior Art
Collision avoidance training technology has been limited to desktop video-based driving simulators, expensive research simulators, and instructional media. In previous research reported in
Commercial Motor Vehicle Simulation Technology To Improve Driver Training, Testing and Licensing Methods
FHWA-MC-96-003 Final Report, April (1966), driver training experts were asked to rate the importance of various simulator training objectives. Following-distance was rated nearly equal to that of driving forward, and was rated the 7th most important objective of 23 in simulator training. However, whereas, all evaluated simulators were judged as adequate in teaching forward driving skills, following-distance was judged as adequate in only 6 of the 12 simulators reviewed. Furthermore, only one of these 6 was manufactured in the U.S., a high fidelity full mission simulator valued at $900,000. Other U.S. built systems were rated as “not-adequate” or “not-provided” with regard to teaching following-distance. These systems were low-fidelity or mid-level fidelity part-task simulators and cost as much as $250,000. The failure of even the most expensive simulators to teach safe following distance is the shortfall of reproducing the visual cues required for judging distance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide accurate instructional feedback to student drivers on maintaining safe following distances, under actual or simulated driver, roadway, and traffic conditions, with the student behind the wheel of an ordinary driving education vehicle.
It is a further object of the invention to provide unique auditory and visual displays for the student driver, and controls and displays for the driving instructor specifically intended for teaching headway safety in the environment of a moving vehicle.
According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle-based headway collision avoidance trainer for the purpose of training student drivers to maintain safe following distances behind other motor vehicles. Unlike other known means of headway distance training, the present invention is intended for use by driving educators in the environment of an ordinary training vehicle while the student driver operates the motor vehicle in response to actual or simulated driver, roadway and traffic conditions. There is provided an integrated collection of special auditory and visual displays attended to by the student, and controls and displays used by the instructor that are unique for teaching headway safety in the context of a moving vehicle. The invention pertains to educating student drivers of passenger vehicles, trucks, busses, and other vehicles, but also pertains to drivers that require driving rehabilitation, training elderly drivers to adjust to losses in perceptual judgement, teaching advanced driving skills, and special driving skills used in law enforcement.
Further, according to the present invention, there is a vehicle-based headway collision avoidance trainer comprising: means for measuring the distance between the training vehicle and a second vehicle traveling in the forward path of the training vehicle; means for measuring the speed and direction of the training vehicle; means for sensing student braking; means for sensing turn-signal activation; means for measuring the reaction-time of the student driver; means for sensing roadway topography and temperature; a computer for receiving a number of parameters, from said sensing means, and for computing from these and other parameters the speed and direction of the leading vehicle, the stopping time of the training vehicle and leading vehicle, and the danger-of-headway-collision; auditory and visual training displays and warnings actuated by the computer when the danger-of-headway-collision distance is computed; and controls for setting other parameters, which are used by the instructor for teaching headway safety in the context of a moving vehicle.
According to further features of the preferred embodiments, below, the trainer includes a main control panel for selecting one of three instructional displays and one of three instructional methods. One display and one method are continuously visible. Thus, a total of nine pairs of display and method combinations are selectable, and each combination provides for the unique visualization of the training environment and control of the training experience. It is an advantage of the present invention that 1) the combinations of displays and methods are easily selectable by the instructor in a moving vehicle, and 2) the instructor is not distracted by a complex user interface. In other embodiments, additional or other displays and methods may be selectable from the main panel. It is also an advantage of the main control panel that although separate instructional displays may be selected, there is a permanent visual display of the danger of headway collision, an indicator for showing the data processing state of the trainer, and controls for setting conditions for limiting sensor data processing.
According to another feature of the preferred embodiments, below, the trainer includes a danger of headway collision display on the main control panel, which is continuously visible and particularly useful for teaching headway safety in the environment of a moving vehicle. According to one embodiment, the display is a horizontal bar graph, which increases in value from left to right. There are two independent scales. Each scale uses the entire area of the bar graph. The first scale could be colored light red and shows the level of increasing danger up to the following distance where a headway collision would be immin
Cheng Joe H.
Rosenberg , Klein & Lee
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