Road Signs Perception Evaluation by Means of a Semi-immersive Tool

Abstract

To reduce the number of road accident victims the European Commission has encouraged the European member states to implement a series of actions in this field. These actions include the development of intelligent and integrated safety systems as well as educational and training initiatives. Educational initiatives include the training of the drivers to improve their ability and sense of responsibility. In addition to the direct use of the vehicle, the training includes the recognition of the traffic signs. Since the recognition may be influenced by both the position of the signal and the weather conditions, the authors have studied the possibility of evaluate the drivers' perception of road signs by means of a virtual environment tool able to perform different operative conditions. A series of tests was conducted to evaluate the visualization tool created and its ability to replace other recognition tests. This paper reports first tests results.