Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting
Abstract Background Gaze is the primary way for pedestrians to obtain clues from traffic scenes before making decisions. Therefore, understanding pedestrian gaze pattern is vital for traffic safety in general and for the design of autonomous vehicles. Methods In this study, participants made road-cr...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2023-09-01
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| Series: | European Transport Research Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-023-00605-1 |
| _version_ | 1827724981039005696 |
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| author | Qingxian Zhao Xiangling Zhuang Tong Zhang Yunqi He Guojie Ma |
| author_facet | Qingxian Zhao Xiangling Zhuang Tong Zhang Yunqi He Guojie Ma |
| author_sort | Qingxian Zhao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Gaze is the primary way for pedestrians to obtain clues from traffic scenes before making decisions. Therefore, understanding pedestrian gaze pattern is vital for traffic safety in general and for the design of autonomous vehicles. Methods In this study, participants made road-crossing decisions in a naturalistic traffic scene, with an eye-tracker recording their gaze behaviors. We manually encoded the recorded videos with 14,898 fixations, and then analyzed the gaze pattern at three levels from general to specific: gaze towards overall scenes, gaze towards vehicles and gaze towards components of vehicles. Findings At the first level, our findings indicate that frequent fixations began to appear at the distance of 100 m and peaked around 5–30 m away from pedestrians. Transversely pedestrians mainly gazed at the two lanes adjacent to themselves. Pedestrians allocated 53% gaze duration to motor vehicles. For a specific vehicle, which is the second level, the gaze duration varied with vehicles' attributes such as distances, sizes, and types. Finally, at the third level, we discovered that pedestrians’ gaze duration on different vehicle components varied with the longitudinal distance. As vehicles approach, the main area of fixation expanded from the near side headlight to the whole front and near side, and finally shift to the near side of a vehicle. Implications The distribution of fixations in space and vehicle components before pedestrian crossing can provide fundamental information for understanding and modeling of pedestrian's road-crossing behaviors. In practice, our findings can guide the timing and position of information displays on autonomous vehicles to facilitate friendly interaction with pedestrians. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:22:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3cc3c1c425d744e8a2b77ec6cbadf2c9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1866-8887 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:22:04Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Transport Research Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-3cc3c1c425d744e8a2b77ec6cbadf2c92023-11-19T12:13:54ZengSpringerOpenEuropean Transport Research Review1866-88872023-09-0115111610.1186/s12544-023-00605-1Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic settingQingxian Zhao0Xiangling Zhuang1Tong Zhang2Yunqi He3Guojie Ma4Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal UniversityShaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal UniversityShaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal UniversityShaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal UniversityShaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal UniversityAbstract Background Gaze is the primary way for pedestrians to obtain clues from traffic scenes before making decisions. Therefore, understanding pedestrian gaze pattern is vital for traffic safety in general and for the design of autonomous vehicles. Methods In this study, participants made road-crossing decisions in a naturalistic traffic scene, with an eye-tracker recording their gaze behaviors. We manually encoded the recorded videos with 14,898 fixations, and then analyzed the gaze pattern at three levels from general to specific: gaze towards overall scenes, gaze towards vehicles and gaze towards components of vehicles. Findings At the first level, our findings indicate that frequent fixations began to appear at the distance of 100 m and peaked around 5–30 m away from pedestrians. Transversely pedestrians mainly gazed at the two lanes adjacent to themselves. Pedestrians allocated 53% gaze duration to motor vehicles. For a specific vehicle, which is the second level, the gaze duration varied with vehicles' attributes such as distances, sizes, and types. Finally, at the third level, we discovered that pedestrians’ gaze duration on different vehicle components varied with the longitudinal distance. As vehicles approach, the main area of fixation expanded from the near side headlight to the whole front and near side, and finally shift to the near side of a vehicle. Implications The distribution of fixations in space and vehicle components before pedestrian crossing can provide fundamental information for understanding and modeling of pedestrian's road-crossing behaviors. In practice, our findings can guide the timing and position of information displays on autonomous vehicles to facilitate friendly interaction with pedestrians.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-023-00605-1Traffic safetyHuman-vehicle interactionEye-trackerPedestrian road-crossing decisionAutonomous vehicles |
| spellingShingle | Qingxian Zhao Xiangling Zhuang Tong Zhang Yunqi He Guojie Ma Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting European Transport Research Review Traffic safety Human-vehicle interaction Eye-tracker Pedestrian road-crossing decision Autonomous vehicles |
| title | Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting |
| title_full | Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting |
| title_fullStr | Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting |
| title_short | Pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting |
| title_sort | pedestrian gaze pattern before crossing road in a naturalistic traffic setting |
| topic | Traffic safety Human-vehicle interaction Eye-tracker Pedestrian road-crossing decision Autonomous vehicles |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-023-00605-1 |
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