Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Display driving'

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40).
An investigation into image fusion for a nighttime driving display application was performed. Most of the image fusion techniques being investigated in this application were developed for other purposes. When comparing the images of a typical night driving scene to the images used in medical or satellite image fusion it becomes apparent that most of the techniques developed for other fields would be overkill in a nighttime driving display application. This observation motivated the development of a set of image fusion techniques specifically for the nighttime driving display application using the computationally simple Discrete Haar Wavelet Transform. This thesis presents the techniques that were developed and the details of their implementation.
by William Frederick Herrington, Jr.
S.M.

Research has shown that head-mounted displays can produce greater presence in a virtual environment than direct-view displays. It has also been shown that after vision, haptic response is one of the most important inputs for humans in a simulated environment. This research was designed primarily to determine the performance differences associated with different display types, levels of steering force feedback, and the interaction between these two factors in a low-to-medium fidelity, PC-based driving simulator. Participants drove on a simulated driving course during which both objective driving performance data were collected (lane deviation, speed control, steering wheel angle variance, and time to the complete course) as well as subjective self-report measures including questionnaires designed to tap immersive tendencies and perceived levels of presence. Results of the research show that the use of a head-mounted display can significantly impact driving performance in terms of speed control and lane deviation. Speed control was significantly improved (increased) and lane deviation was significantly improved (decreased) in three of the four roadway segments with the use of an HMD. Results for active steering force feedback, however, showed a significantly negative effect on driving performance with an increase in average lane deviation. Descriptive statistics showed that participants preferred the HMD and D-V equally and all but one participant preferred active steering force feedback.
Master of Science

Drivers require a steady stream of relevant but focused visual input to make decisions. Most driving information comes from the surrounding environment so keeping drivers' eyes on the road is paramount. However, important information still comes from in-vehicle displays. With this in mind, there has been renewed recent interest in delivering driving in-formation via head-up display. A head-up display (HUD) can present an image directly on-to the windshield of a vehicle, providing a relatively seamless transition between the display image and the road ahead. Most importantly, HUD use keeps drivers' eyes focused in the direction of the road ahead. The transparent display coupled with a new location make it likely that HUDs provide a fundamentally different driving experience and may change the way people drive, in both good and bad ways. Therefore, the objectives of this work were to 1) understand changes in drivers' glance behaviors when using different types of displays, 2) investigate the impact of HUD position on glance behaviors, and 3) examine the impact of HUD graphic type on drivers' behaviors. Specifically, we captured empirical data regarding changes in driving behaviors, glance behaviors, reported workload, and preferences while driving performing a secondary task using in-vehicle displays. We found that participants exhibited different glance behaviors when using different display types, with participants allocating more and longer glances towards a HUD as compared to a traditional Head-Down Display. However, driving behaviors were not largely affected and participants reported lower workload when using the HUD. HUD location did not cause large changes in glance behaviors, but some driving behaviors were affected. When exam-ining the impact of graphic types on participants, we employed a novel technique for ana-lyzing glance behaviors by dividing the display into three different areas of interest relative to the HUD graphic. This method allowed us to differentiate between graphic types and to better understand differences found in driving behaviors and participant preferences than could be determined with frequently used glance analysis methods. Graphics that were fixed in place rather than animated generally resulted in less time allocated to looking at the graphics, and these changes were likely because the fixed graphics were simple and easy to understand. Ultimately, glance and driving behaviors were affected at some level by the display type, display location, and graphic type as well as individual differences like gender and age.
Ph. D.

This study investigated the link between age and gender susceptibility to simulator-induced sickness in conjunction with display type. Simulator-induced sickness and ataxia were measured before and after exposure to a medium-fidelity driving simulator. Participants in four age and gender categories (older and younger males and females) operated the simulator with a consumer-grade head-mounted display (HMD), and then with a large screen, direct-view plasma display.

This study set out to recommend a particular display type that would be appropriate for use with particular age/gender groups in a general-purpose driving simulator. Unfortunately, practice effects affected the simulator-induced sickness and driving performance results for display type, which precludes making recommendations regarding the appropriate use of each display. Despite this, several important discoveries were made, including: 1) older participants did experience significantly increased simulator-induced sickness discomfort than the younger participants - regardless of display type; and 2) there was no significant difference found between genders in either simulator-induced sickness or driving performance; although females generally expressed a subjective preference for the direct-view display.

Display type was not found to affect the degree of ataxia experienced by participants; however, this study did find that although older participants exhibited significantly higher rates of simulator-induced sickness discomfort than the younger participants, they recovered their postural equilibrium significantly faster. This indicates that the older participants had greater difficulty adapting to the simulation environment than younger persons. It also suggests that younger persons are at greater risk during immediate post-simulation activities such as driving. Although it is likely that this effect would disappear over time, it has implications for agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles or drivers education schools that are considering the use of a driving simulator device before an on-road skills test.
Master of Science

In this study, we investigated whether modifying augmented reality head-up display (AR HUD) graphics’ perceptual form influences spatial learning of the environment. We employed a 2x2 between-subjects design in which twenty-four participants were counterbalanced by gender. We used a fixed base, medium-fidelity driving simulator at the COGENT lab at Virginia Tech. Two different navigation cues systems were compared: world-relative and screen-relative. The world-relative condition placed an artificial post sign at the corner of an approaching intersection containing a real landmark. The screen-relative condition displayed turn directions using a screen-fixed traditional arrow located directly ahead of the participant on the right or left side on the HUD. We captured empirical data regarding changes in driving behaviors, glance behaviors, spatial knowledge acquisition (measured in terms of landmark and route knowledge), reported workload, and usability of the interface. Results showed that both screen-relative and world-relative AR head-up display interfaces have similar impact on the levels of spatial knowledge acquired; suggesting that world-relative AR graphics may be used for navigation with no comparative reduction in spatial knowledge acquisition. Even though our initial assumption that the conformal AR HUD interface would draw drivers’ attention to a specific part of the display was correct, this type of interface was not helpful to increase spatial knowledge acquisition. This finding contrasts a common perspective in the AR community that conformal, world-relative graphics are inherently more effective than screen-relative graphics. We suggest that simple, screen-fixed designs may indeed be effective in certain contexts. Finally, eye-tracking analyses showed fundamental differences in the way participants visually interacted with different AR HUD interfaces; with conformal-graphics demanding more visual attention from drivers. We showed that the distribution of visual attention allocation was that the world-relative condition was typically associated with fewer glances in total, but glances of longer duration.
M.S.
As humans, we develop mental representations of our surroundings as we move through and learn about our environment. When navigating via car, developing robust mental representations (spatial knowledge) of the environment is crucial in situations where technology fails, or we need to find locations not included in a navigation system’s database. Over-reliance on traditional in-vehicle navigation devices has been shown to negatively impact our ability to navigate based on our own internal knowledge. Recently, the automotive industry has been developing new in-vehicle devices that have the potential to promote more active navigation and potentially enhance spatial knowledge acquisition. Vehicles with augmented reality (AR) graphics delivered via head-up displays (HUDs) present navigation information directly within drivers’ forward field of view, allowing drivers to gather information needed without looking away from the road. While this AR navigation technology is promising, the nuances of interface design and its impacts on drivers must be further understood before AR can be widely and safely incorporated into vehicles. In this work, we present a user study that examines how screen-relative and world-relative AR HUD interface designs affect drivers’ spatial knowledge acquisition. Results showed that both screen-relative and world-relative AR head-up display interfaces have similar impact on the levels of spatial knowledge acquired; suggesting that world-relative AR graphics may be used for navigation with no comparative reduction in spatial knowledge acquisition. However, eye-tracking analyses showed fundamental differences in the way participants visually interacted with different AR HUD interfaces; with conformal-graphics demanding more visual attention from drivers

In the course of the current demographic change, the proportion of the population aged 65 and older is projected to steadily increase in many countries of the world (UN DESA Population Division, 2015). The ageing society is reflected in an increasing number of older road users (Koppel & Berecki-Gisolf, 2015), especially considering the growing need for older adults to maintain individual mobility (Eby & Molnar, 2012). This development raises new issues of transportation research, since age-related changes in mobility patterns as well as sensory, cognitive, and motor functions reduce older adults’ traffic safety (Polders, Vlahogianni, Leopold, & Durso, 2015). Accordingly, new strategies to aid older drivers and their mobility needs are required, which could potentially be provided by emerging in-vehicle technologies (Karthaus & Falkenstein, 2016). The overall aim of present dissertation project was to evaluate whether in-vehicle technologies that appear promising to support older drivers can actually contribute to their individual mobility, which requires an improvement in aspects related to driving performance as well as the acceptance of such systems in this age group. Therefore, contact-analogue head-up displays (also labelled as Augmented Reality Displays, ARDs) and highly automated driving were selected as two exemplary technologies, representing completely different levels of driving automation and accordingly different approaches to support drivers. The ARD-technology represents a technical implementation approach for IVIS and therefore an example for Automation Level 0 (no automation; SAE International, 2014) by helping the driver to execute the driving task manually through useful information. In contrast, the HAD-technology aims at supporting the driver by taking over the driving task, which corresponds to Automation Level 4 (high automation; SAE International, 2014). Despite these different approaches, both technologies were previously assumed to have a strong potential to support especially older drivers (Meyer & Deix, 2014; Polders et al., 2015; Rusch et al., 2013; Schall et al., 2013). Three empirical studies were conducted to examine performance- and acceptance-related aspects of both technologies. All studies were carried out with a group of older drivers (maximum age range: 65 85 years) and a younger comparison group (maximum age range: 25-45 years) representing the ‘average’ (i.e. young, but experienced) driver in order to identify age-specific results. Focusing on performance-related aspects of the ARD-technology, Study I represents a reaction time experiment conducted in a driving simulator. One age-specific beneficial function of such an ARD is to provide prior information about approaching complex traffic situations, which addresses older drivers’ tendency to process multiple information successively (serially) rather than simultaneously (parallel) (Davidse, Hagenzieker, van Wolffelaar, & Brouwer, 2009; Küting & Krüger, 2002). Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of an ARD providing prior information about approaching intersections on drivers’ speed and accuracy of perceiving these intersections, which is considered a necessary precondition for a safe driving performance (Crundall & Underwood, 2011). Based on concerns about the counterproductive effects of presenting information via an ARD, especially in cases of inaccurate information, system failures were included in this examination. The ARD-information aided drivers from both age groups in identifying more relevant aspects of the intersections without increasing response time, indicating the potential of the system to support both older and younger drivers in complex traffic situations. Experiencing system failures (i.e. inaccurate information) did offset this positive effect for the study’s duration, particularly for older drivers. This might be because it was difficult to ignore inaccurate prior information due to their presentation via an ARD. Study II represents a driving simulator study on acceptance-related aspects of an ARD providing prior information about approaching intersections. This study focused on the effects of system experience on drivers’ acceptance as well as on the identification of age-specific acceptance barriers that could prevent older drivers from using the technology. In summary, older and younger drivers’ evaluation of the ARD was positive, with a tendency to more positive evaluations with than without system experience in the driving simulator. Compared to the younger group, older drivers reported a more positive attitude towards using the ARD, even though they evaluated their self-efficacy in handling the system and environmental conditions facilitating its usage as less strong. Both performance- and acceptance-related aspects of HAD were addressed in Study III, a two-stage driving simulator study. The focus of the performance perspective shifted in parallel with the shift of the human role from driver to passenger due to the increasing driving automation. Accordingly, the examination of HAD was focused on the human evaluation of the automated system’s driving performance. In this context, affective components of human-automation interaction, such as comfort and enjoyment, are considered important for the acceptance and thus usage of automated vehicles (Tischler & Renner, 2007). It is assumed that the implemented driving style has an impact on such affective components in the context of HAD (Bellem, Schönenberg, Krems, & Schrauf, 2016). One theoretical approach to increase the comfort of HAD recommends the implementation of familiar, natural driving styles to mimic human control (Elbanhawi, Simic, & Jazar, 2015). Therefore, the effects of driving automation and the familiarity of the HAD-style on driving comfort and enjoyment were examined. Automation increased both age groups’ comfort, but decreased younger drivers’ enjoyment. For all dependent variables, driving style familiarity significantly interacted with drivers’ age the same way: while younger drivers preferred a familiar HAD-style, older drivers preferred an unfamiliar driving style in a highly automated context. Accordingly, the familiarity approach can be supported at least for younger drivers, but not for older drivers, whose manual driving styles are characterised by strategies to compensate for age-related impairments of sensory, cognitive, or motor functions. HAD-style preferences of this age group seem to be more influenced by the desire to regain a driving style free from these compensation strategies than by a need for familiar driving manoeuvres. In parallel with the evaluation of the ARD, acceptance-related issues in the context of HAD included the effects of system experience on drivers’ acceptance and potential age-specific acceptance barriers. Considering a system-specific design issue, it was additionally examined whether drivers’ acceptance of HAD is modifiable by the familiarity of the implemented driving style. In this driving simulator study, members of both age groups showed slightly positive a priori acceptance ratings, which significantly increased after the initial experience and remained stable afterwards. Similar to drivers’ acceptance of the ARD, older drivers reported a more positive attitude towards using HAD despite their lower self-assessed self-efficacy and environmental conditions facilitating HAD-usage compared to younger drivers. Regarding HAD-style, acceptance was subject to the same interaction between drivers’ age and driving style familiarity as driving comfort and enjoyment. These findings demonstrate that effective approaches to support the independent mobility of older adults are provided by emerging in-vehicle technologies on different levels of driving automation. The majority of the performance-related improvements did apply to both older and younger drivers, confirming that automotive technologies suggested for older drivers have the potential to support drivers of other age groups as well. Regarding drivers’ acceptance, findings suggest that both systems would be accepted by different age groups, which correspondents to the results from the performance perspective. The comparable acceptance patterns identified for two systems at different stages of driving automation, such as ARDs and HAD, indicate underlying general aspects of older adults’ acceptance of in-vehicle technologies. This includes their strong need to preserve their individual mobility as well as their lower self-efficacy in handling relevant technologies and insufficient access to a support infrastructure. These insights can enrich both theories of older drivers’ acceptance of in-vehicle technologies and measures to ensure the successful development and introduction of systems aiding them in maintaining a safe individual mobility. Considering the importance of driving for older adults’ physiological and psychological well-being (e.g. Adler & Rottunda, 2006; Lutin, Kornhauser, & Lerner-Lam, 2013), these results emphasise the potential of emerging in-vehicle technologies to improve both older drivers’ traffic safety and quality of life
Im Zuge des aktuellen demografischen Wandels wird für zahlreiche Länder der Welt eine stetige Zunahme des Bevölkerungsanteils von Personen im Alter von 65 Jahren und älter prognostiziert (UN DESA Population Division, 2015). Die daraus resultierende alternde Gesellschaft spiegelt sich auch in der steigenden Anzahl älterer Verkehrsteilnehmer wieder (Koppel & Berecki-Gisolf, 2015). Dieser Effekt wird durch das ebenfalls ansteigende Bedürfnis älterer Personen, ihre Individualmobilität auch bis ins hohe Alter hinein aufrecht zu erhalten, noch verstärkt (Eby & Molnar, 2012). Berücksichtigt man die Auswirkungen altersbedingter Veränderungen von Mobilitätsmustern und fahrrelevanten Fähigkeiten auf die Sicherheit älterer Verkehrsteilnehmer (Polders et al., 2015), stellt diese demographische Entwicklung neue Herausforderungen an die Verkehrsforschung. So bedarf es neuartiger Strategien zur Unterstützung älterer Fahrzeugführer und ihrer Mobilitätsbedürfnisse. Aufgrund aktueller technologischer Entwicklungen eröffnen vor allem durch neuartige Fahrzeugtechnologien zur Fahrerunterstützung innovative Möglichkeiten, diesem Bedarf gerecht zu werden (Karthaus & Falkenstein, 2016). An diesem Punkt setzt die vorliegende Dissertation an. Ziel des Dissertationsprojektes war es zu evaluieren, inwieweit aktuell in Entwicklung befindliche Fahrzeugtechnologien, die aus theoretischer Sicht als geeignete Mittel zur Unterstützung älterer Fahrer erscheinen, tatsächlich zu deren Individualmobilität beitragen können. Um das Potential derartiger Technologien abzuschätzen, wurde einerseits untersucht, inwieweit sie zur Verbesserung von Variablen, die in Beziehung zur Fahrleistung stehen, beitragen können. Anderseits wurde ihre Akzeptanz bei potentiellen zukünftigen Nutzern evaluiert. Für diese Untersuchungen wurden zwei exemplarische Technologien als Repräsentanten grundlegend unterschiedlicher Stufen der Fahrzeugautomatisierung ausgewählt: ein kontaktanaloge Head-up Display (auch Augmented Reality Display, ARD) und hochautomatisiertes Fahren. ARDs stellen einen technologischen Ansatz zur Implementierung von Fahrerinformationssystemen und dementsprechend ein Beispiel für Automatisierungsstufe 0 (no automation; SAE International, 2014) dar, indem sie den Fahrer durch die Bereitstellung verkehrsrelevanter Informationen bei der manuellen Ausführung der Fahraufgabe unterstützen. Im Gegensatz dazu zielt die Technologie des hochautomatisierten Fahrens auf eine Unterstützung des Fahrers durch die vollständige Übernahme der Fahraufgabe ab, was Automatisierungsstufe 4 (high automation; SAE International, 2014) entspricht. Trotz dieser grundlegend unterschiedlichen Ansätze wird beiden Technologien ein hohes Potential zur Unterstützung insbesondere älterer Fahrer zugesprochen (Meyer & Deix, 2014; Polders et al., 2015; Rusch et al., 2013; Schall et al., 2013). Die Untersuchung Performanz- und Akzeptanz-bezogener Aspekte beider Technologien erfolgte im Rahmen von drei empirische Studien. Um altersspezifische Befunde identifizieren zu können, wurden allen Studien mit Vertretern der Zielgruppe von älteren Fahrern (65-85 Jahre alt) sowie einer jüngeren Vergleichsgruppe ‚durchschnittlicher‘ (d.h. junger, erfahrener) Fahrer (25-45 Jahre alt) durchgeführt. Bei Studie I handelte es sich um eine im Fahrsimulator durchgeführte Reaktionszeitstudie, in deren Rahmen Leistungs-bezogene Aspekte von ARDs untersucht wurden. Unter den vielfältigen Möglichkeiten zur Anwendung dieser Technologie wird vor allem die Präsentation von Vorinformationen über bevorstehende komplexe Fahrsituationen während der Fahrt als gewinnbringend für ältere Fahrer eingestuft. Diese Strategie adressiert die Tendenz älterer Fahrer zu einer eher seriellen als parallelen Verarbeitung gleichzeitig verfügbarer Informationen während der Fahrt (Davidse et al., 2009; Küting & Krüger, 2002). Vor diesem Hintergrund lag der Fokus von Studie I auf den Effekten einer kontaktanalogen Präsentation von Vorinformationen über bevorstehende Kreuzungen auf die Geschwindigkeit und Genauigkeit der Wahrnehmung dieser Kreuzungen durch den Fahrer, was eine Grundvoraussetzung für eine sichere Fahrleistung darstellt (Crundall & Underwood, 2011). Basierend auf bestehenden Befürchtungen über kontraproduktive Effekte einer kontaktanalogen Informationsdarstellung während der Fahrt, insbesondere im Falle inkorrekter Informationen, wurden zudem die Auswirkungen von Systemfehlern untersucht. Mit Hilfe der kontaktanalogen Vorinformationen gelang es sowohl älteren als auch jüngeren Fahrern, ohne erhöhten Zeitbedarf einen höheren Anteil relevanter Aspekte in Kreuzungssituationen wahrzunehmen. Allerdings wurde die positive Systemwirkung durch das Erleben von Systemfehlern (in diesem Fall inkorrekten Vorinformationen) zumindest für die Dauer der Untersuchung aufgehoben. Dieser Effekt war besonders ausgeprägt für ältere Fahrer und könnte auf die Schwierigkeit, inkorrekte Informationen auf Grund ihrer Darstellung im ARD zu ignorieren, zurückzuführen sein. Studie II stellte eine Fahrsimulatorstudie zu Akzeptanz-bezogenen Aspekten eines ARDs, welches dem Fahrer Vorinformationen über bevorstehende Kreuzungen zur Verfügung stellt, dar. Inhalt dieser Studie waren zum einen die Effekte von Systemerfahrung auf die Nutzerakzeptanz des Systems, zum anderen altersspezifische Akzeptanzbarrieren, welche ältere Fahrer potentiell von der Nutzung der Technologie abhalten könnten. Insgesamt bewerteten sowohl ältere als auch jüngere Fahrer das ARD positiv. Dabei fielen Bewertungen auf Basis von Systemerfahrung im Fahrsimulator tendenziell besser aus als Bewertungen ohne vorherige Systemerfahrung. Obwohl ältere Fahrer im Vergleich zu jüngeren Fahrern ihre Selbstwirksamkeit im Umgang mit dem ARD sowie Umgebungsfaktoren, welche dessen Nutzung unterstützen könnten, als geringer ausgeprägt wahrnahmen, war die positive Einstellung gegenüber der Nutzung des Systems bei ihnen im Durchschnitt stärker ausgeprägt. Leistungs- und Akzeptanz-bezogene Aspekte des hochautomatisierten Fahrens wurden in Studie III, einer zweistufigen Fahrsimulatorstudie, untersucht. Parallel zur Veränderung der Rolle des Menschen vom Fahrzeugführer zum Passagier im Zuge der zunehmenden Fahrzeugautomatisierung veränderte sich dabei auch der Fokus der Leistungsperspektive. Dem entsprechend stand die Bewertung der Fahrleistung des automatisierten Systems durch den mitfahrenden Menschen im Mittelpunkt dieser Untersuchung. Affektive Komponenten der Mensch-Automatisierungs-Interaktion wie Fahrkomfort und Fahrspaß werden in diesem Kontext als bedeutsam zur Gewährleistung der Nutzerakzeptanz und damit auch Nutzung automatisierter Fahrzeuge betrachtet (Tischler & Renner, 2007). Es wird angenommen, dass derartige affektive Komponenten im Kontext des hochautomatisierten Fahrens vor allem vom implementierten Fahrstil abhängen (Bellem et al., 2016). In einem theoretischen Ansatz zur Verbesserung des Fahrkomforts wird die Implementierung vertrauter (d.h. dem eigenen manuellen Fahrstil ähnlicher) Fahrstile empfohlen, um einen menschlichen Fahrzeugführer nachzuahmen und so Bedenken gegenüber einer automatisierten Fahrzeugführung abzubauen (Elbanhawi et al., 2015). Diesem Ansatz folgend wurden in Studie III die Effekte der Fahrzeugautomatisierung sowie der Ähnlichkeit des implementierten Fahrstils zum individuellen manuellen Fahrstil des jeweiligen Fahrers auf Fahrkomfort und Fahrspaß untersucht. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass mit höherer Automatisierung der Fahrkomfort älterer und jüngerer Fahrer anstieg, der Fahrspaß jüngerer Fahrer sich jedoch verringerte. Alle abhängigen Variablen wurden von einer vergleichbaren Interaktion zwischen Fahreralter und Fahrstilähnlichkeit beeinflusst: Während jüngere Fahrer hochautomatisierte Fahrstile bevorzugten, die ihren jeweiligen manuellen Fahrstilen ähnelten, präferierten ältere Fahrer im hochautomatisierten Kontext eher unähnliche Fahrstile. Dem entsprechend kann der Vertrautheitsansatz basierend auf den Ergebnissen von Studie III zumindest für jüngere Fahrer unterstützt werden, nicht aber für die Zielgruppe älterer Fahrer, deren manuelle Fahrstile durch Kompensationsstrategien zum Ausgleich altersbedingter Einschränkungen ihrer sensorischen, kognitiven und motorischen Fähigkeiten geprägt sind. Fahrstilpräferenzen im hochautomatisierten Kontext scheinen in dieser Altersgruppe mehr von dem Wunsch, einen von diesen Kompensationsstrategien unbeeinträchtigten Fahrstil wiederzuerlangen, geprägt zu sein als von dem Bedürfnis nach vertraut gestalteten Fahrmanövern. Analog zur Evaluation des ARDs beinhaltete die Untersuchung Akzeptanz-bezogener Aspekte des hochautomatisierten Fahrens die Effekte von Systemerfahrung auf die Nutzerakzeptanz sowie potentielle altersspezifische Akzeptanzbarrieren. Einen systemspezifischen Designaspekt aufgreifend wurde zudem untersucht, ob die Nutzerakzeptanz des hochautomatisierten Fahrens ebenfalls durch den implementierten Fahrstil modifizierbar ist. Fahrer beider Altersgruppen berichteten tendenziell positive a priori Akzeptanzwerte, welche sich nach der Ersterfahrung mit dem System signifikant erhöhten und sich anschließend stabilisierten. Vergleichbar mit den Ergebnissen zum ARD war die positive Einstellung gegenüber der Nutzung eines hochautomatisierten Fahrzeuges bei älteren Fahrern im Durchschnitt stärker ausgeprägt als bei jüngeren, obwohl sie ihre Selbstwirksamkeit im Umgang mit dem System sowie unterstützende Umgebungsfaktoren als geringer ausgeprägt bewerteten. Bezüglich des hochautomatisierten Fahrstils unterlag die Systemakzeptanz derselben Interaktion zwischen Fahreralter und Fahrstilähnlichkeit wie Fahrkomfort und Fahrspaß. Diese Ergebnisse demonstrieren, dass Fahrzeugtechnologien auf verschiedenen Automatisierungsstufen effektive Ansätze zur Unterstützung der Individualmobilität älterer Personen liefern können. Die Mehrzahl der identifizierten Leistungs-bezogenen Verbesserungen zeigte sich sowohl für ältere als auch jüngere Fahrer. Diese Befunde weißen auf das Potential von Systemen, welche den Bedürfnissen älterer Fahrer entsprechen, zur Unterstützung verschiedener Altersgruppen hin. Die Ergebnisse der Akzeptanzperspektive deuten an, dass die evaluierten Systeme von Fahrern verschiedener Altersgruppen akzeptiert werden würden, was die Ergebnisse der Leistungsebene widerspiegelt. Die Vergleichbarkeit der Muster verschiedener Akzeptanzprädiktoren, welche für zwei Systeme auf grundlegend unterschiedlichen Automatisierungsstufen identifiziert werden konnten, legt die Existenz zugrundeliegender genereller Aspekte der Fahrzeugtechnologie-Akzeptanz älterer Fahrer nahe. Diese beinhalten deren stark ausgeprägtes Bedürfnis zur Erhaltung ihrer Individualmobilität sowie deren geringere Selbstwirksamkeit im Umgang mit relevanten Technologien und den unzureichenden Zugang zu unterstützenden Infrastrukturen. Diese Erkenntnisse liefern Implikationen für theoretische Modelle der Akzeptanz von Fahrzeugtechnologien durch ältere Fahrer sowie für Maßnahmen zur Absicherung einer erfolgreichen Entwicklung und Markteinführung von Systemen, die darauf abzielen, ältere Menschen beim Erhalt ihrer Individualmobilität zu unterstützen. Berücksichtigt man die Bedeutsamkeit des Fahrens eines eigenen Automobils für das physiologische und psychologische Wohlbefinden im Alter (Adler & Rottunda, 2006; Lutin et al., 2013; Whelan, Langford, Oxley, Koppel, & Charlton, 2006), unterstreichen diese Ergebnisse das Potential neu entstehender Fahrerunterstützungstechnologien für die Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit, aber auch Lebensqualität älterer Menschen

At night, the visibility is reduced and the demands on the driver increase. A safety system that enables the driver to discover warmer objects in the surroundings when the visibility are reduced, such as the Vision Enhancement System (VES) contributes to safer night-time driving. Since the benefits of this system are established, it is of interest to investigate different design aspects. The VES display has in earlier studies been positioned in front of the driver but different display positions such as peripheral placement should be evaluated.

The present simulator study is an investigation of the effects of different display positions inside the car. Two different display positions were investigated, in front of the driver and to the right of the driver. When driving with a display positioned to the right, the driver will have to divide his attention between the road scene and the display by turning his head or he might be able to use peripheral vision. It was hypothesised that there would be significant differences in driving performance between the two display positions in favour of the display position above the steering wheel.

The results were measured in driving performance as well as opinions from the participants. Results show that there were some significant differences and several tendencies of better driving performance when driving with the display in front of the driver. The participants also rated this display as being better positioned and effecting the driving in a more positive way than the display to the right. It was therefore concluded that that the most preferred display position is in front of the driver.

Designing an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) must be starting with careful preparations, otherwise the chip will not be as good as possible. The theoretical studies must cover everything from the chip circuits to the application structure. In mobile applications there is extremely important that the current consumption becomes minimized because the battery power is limited. The power reductions studies must include the most power costing circuits on the chip. When the whole circuit or segments of the circuit is not in use, they must switch fast and simple into another mode that consume nearly none power. This mode is called sleep-mode. If the sleep-mode has very low leakage currents, the lifetime of the application will dramatically increase.

This report studies the most power costing circuits in smartcard application ASIC. The chip should be used to control a LCD display on the smartcard. The circuits that have been investigated are level shifters, charge pumps and LCD drivers, also sleep-mode configuration possibilities have been investigated. Other small preparing work is also included in the thesis.

L’Affichage Tête Haute (ATH) est la solution émergente pour l’aide visuelle à la conduite automobile, surtout dans certaines conditions de visibilité réduite par un temps dégradé ou une route mal éclairée. Le dispositif ATH permet de projeter des informations virtuelles, directement dans le champ de vision central de la scène de conduite, sans détournement du regard de la route. La perception visuelle du conducteur est ainsi augmentée avec une coexistence entre le réel et le virtuel. Cependant, pour garantir la bonne perception de ces informations virtuelles et permettre aux conducteurs d’engager les actions appropriées au bon moment, il est nécessaire d’assurer un paramétrage optimal. Ce projet de thèse se consacre à l’étude de trois facteurs majeurs : (1) la Parallaxe de Mouvement du Conducteur – PMC, (2) la distance de projection de la RA, (3) la condition de visibilité. Ces différents facteurs ont été progressivement introduits au cours des expérimentations. Deux métaphores visuelles RA pour l’aide à la conduite primaire ont été spécialement conçues. Trois expérimentations ont été menées sur sujets réels dans les simulateurs de conduite de Renault. L’ATH-RA a été simulé virtuellement et intégré à l’environnement virtuel de conduite, ce qui a permis la réalisation d’études subjectives et objectives, afin d’étudier progressivement : l’impact de la PMC, le lien avec la distance de projection, et l’influence des conditions de visibilité. Dans ce travail pluridisciplinaire, nous tentons de comprendre comment les informations Réalité Augmentée sont perçues par le conducteur ainsi que l’influence sur le comportement et les performances durant la conduite, afin de proposer des préconisations sur les paramètres d’un ATH-RA
Head-Up Display is the emerging solution for visual aid while driving a car, especially during reduced visibility conditions, such as bad weather or when the road is poorly lighted. The HUD device allows to project virtual information in the central field of view of the driving scene, enabling the driver to keep his attention on the road. The visual perception of the driver is therefore augmented, with a coexistence between the real and virtual world. However, it is necessary to ensure an optimal setting in order to guarantee the good perception of the virtual information, and allow drivers to take appropriate actions at the right moment. This thesis project is dedicated to study three important parameters: (1) The Driver Head Motion Parallax, (2) AR projection distance, (3) visibility conditions. An experimental approach has been implemented, with the selection of two AR visual metaphors for driving aid. Three experimentations with real subjects have been realized in Renault’s driving simulators, where the three factors have been integrated progressively. The AR-HUD was simulated virtually and embedded in the virtual driving scene. This allowed to realize subjective and objective analysis to progressively study: the impact of the PMC, the link with the projection distance, and the influence of visibility conditions. The aim of this multidisciplinary work is an attempt to understand how AR information if perceived by the driver, and the influence on driver behavior and performance

Thousands of preventable automobile accidents occur each year. Many of these accidents are the result of driver distraction, in which the driver’s attention is diverted from the road. This distraction can come from several different places; sometimes it comes from drivers looking down at a speedometer or dashboard display. Other times it can come from the use of a mobile device for texting or navigation. While things like texting are clearly an unacceptable action to perform while operating a vehicle, others are necessary for proper operation of a car. Still others, like navigation, are extremely convenient and have become an integral part of day to day life. It seems highly possible that such convenient driving aids as well as necessary measures such as speed could be incorporated into a heads-up display for a safer driving experience.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California
This paper presents a new approach for the effective generation of translator scripts that can be used to automate the translation of data display configurations from one vendor format to another. Our approach uses the IDEF5 ontology description method to capture the ontology of each vendor format and provides simple rules for performing mappings. In addition, the method includes the specification of mappings between a language-specific ontology and its corresponding syntax specification, that is, either an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Schema or Document Type Description (DTD). Finally, we provide an algorithm for automatically generating eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) scripts that transform XML documents from one language to another. The method is implemented in a graphical tool called the Data Display Translator Generator (DDTG) that supports both inter-language (ontology-to-ontology) and intra-language (syntax-to-ontology) mappings and generates the XSLT scripts. The tool renders the XML Schema or DTD as trees, provides intuitive, user-friendly interfaces for performing the mappings, and provides a report of completed mappings. It also generates data type conversion code when both the source and target syntaxes are XML Schema-based. Our approach has the advantage of performing language mappings at an abstract, ontology level, and facilitates the mapping of tool ontologies to a common domain ontology (in our case, Data Display Markup Language or DDML), thereby eliminating the O(n^2) mapping problem that involves a number of data formats in the same domain.

Fahrerassistenzsysteme werden zunehmend in Fahrzeuge eingebaut mit dem Ziel, den Fahrer beim Fahren zu unterstützen, Fahrfehler zu vermeiden und damit die Fahrsicherheit zu erhöhen. Derzeit sind häufig Systeme im Einsatz, die den Fahrer vor bestimmten Sicherheitsrisiken warnen (z.B. vor einem unbeabsichtigten Verlassen der Fahrspur). Der Trend geht aber hin zu Systemen, die stärker ins Fahrgeschehen eingreifen und somit Teile der Fahraufgabe automatisieren (z.B. selbständig die Spurhaltung des Fahrzeugs übernehmen). Aus der Forschung zur Mensch-Maschine Interaktion ist jedoch bekannt, dass Automatisierung nicht zwangsläufig zur Erhöhung von Sicherheit führt, sondern dass sie vielmehr auch unerwünschte Nebeneffekte für Performanz und Sicherheit mit sich bringen kann in dem Maße, wie Menschen an die veränderten Aufgabenanforderungen adaptieren. Im Straßenverkehr wird insbesondere befürchtet, dass Fahrer sich zu stark auf Fahrerassistenzsysteme verlassen, sich teilweise aus der Fahraufgabe zurückziehen („abschalten“) und ihre Aufmerksamkeit fahrfremden Dingen widmen. Dies kann unter Umständen dazu führen, dass Fahrer im Falle von Systemfehlern oder –ausfällen nicht mehr in der Lage sind rechtzeitig und angemessen einzugreifen bzw. die Kontrolle über das Fahrzeug zu übernehmen. Ziel der Dissertation war es zu untersuchen, inwieweit sich die Involviertheit von Fahrern in die Fahraufgabe verändert je stärker sie durch ein Assistenzsystem unterstützt werden (d.h., je stärker das System Teile der Fahraufgabe automatisiert). Um dies zu untersuchen wurden zwei theoretische Konzepte herangezogen: a) das Verlassen der Fahrer (auf ein System) und b) das Situationsbewusstsein der Fahrer. Basierend auf einer umfassenden Analyse der Forschungsliteratur zum Thema Automatisierung wurde ein theoretisches Rahmenmodell entwickelt, welches Veränderungen in der Involviertheit des Fahrers in die Fahraufgabe auf menschliche Adaptationsprozesse auf verschiedenen Ebenen zurückführt, die sich in Folge der veränderten Aufgaben­anforderungen durch zunehmende Automatisierung ergeben. Dazu zählen Veränderungen in Einstellungen, sowie in kognitiven, energetischen, und motivationalen Prozessen. Um Veränderungen in diesen Prozessen zu untersuchen, wurde eine Vielzahl an objektiven und subjektiven Maßen erhoben. Hauptgegenstand der Dissertation ist eine umfangreiche Fahrsimulatorstudie im Fahrsimulator mit Bewegungsplattform bei VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) in Linköping, Schweden. Dabei kamen zwei Querführungsassistenzsysteme (ein Heading Control System und ein Lane Departure Warning System) zum Einsatz, die den Fahrer in unterschiedlichem Maße bei der Spurhaltung unterstützten. Im Gegensatz zu einem Großteil der bisherigen Studien wurden prozessorientierte Performanzmaße zur Erfassung des Verlassens der Fahrer auf die Assistenzsysteme und des Situationsbewusstseins der Fahrer verwendet. Das Verlassen der Fahrer auf die Querführungsassistenzsysteme wurde durch Blickverhaltensmaße über die Bereitschaft der Fahrer erfasst, ihre visuelle Aufmerksamkeit von der Straße ab hin zu einer Zweitaufgabe im Fahrzeuginnenraum zu wenden. Zur Messung des Situationsbewusstseins der Fahrer wurden Fahrverhaltensmaße herangezogen welche als Indikator für die Schnelligkeit und Abruptheit der Reaktionen der Fahrer auf unerwartete kritische Fahrsituationen dienten. Ein Hauptbefund der Dissertation war, dass die Fahrer sich signifikant im Ausmaß ihres Verlassens auf einen hohen Grad an Assistenz unterschieden. Diese interindividuelle Varianz im Verlassen der Fahrer auf einen hohen Grad an Assistenz konnte am besten durch das Vertrauen der Fahrer in das Querführungsassistenzsystem und ihr Aktivierungsniveau erklärt werden: Je höher das Vertrauen der Fahrer in das System und je geringer ihr Aktivierungsniveau, desto stärker verließen sie sich auf das System. Individuelle Fahrermerkmale (Fahrstil) erklärten einen signifikanten Anteil der Varianz im Vertrauen der Fahrer in die Spurhalteassistenzsysteme. (ersetzt wegen neuem Herausgeber)
Advanced driver assistance systems are increasingly built in vehicles with the aim to support drivers while driving, to reduce driver errors and thereby to increase traffic safety. At present, these systems are often designed to warn drivers of specific safety risks (e.g., of an imminent departure from the driving lane). However, there is a trend towards systems that more strongly intervene in driving and that hence, automate parts of the driving task (e.g., autonomously keep the vehicle within the driving lane). However, research on human-machine interaction has shown that automation does not necessarily increase safety, but that it may also lead to unanticipated side effects on performance and safety to the extent that humans adapt to the changing task demands. A major concern in road traffic is that drivers rely too heavily on driver assistance systems, become less actively involved in the driving task, and divert their attention to things unrelated to driving. Thus, in the case of system malfunctions or failures, drivers possibly may not be prepared to intervene timely and accordingly and to regain control over the vehicle, respectively. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate changes in drivers’ active engagement in the driving task as a function of the degree to which they are supported by a driver assistance system (i.e., as a function of the degree to which the system automates the driving task). Drivers’ active task engagement was studied by referring to two theoretical concepts: a) drivers’ reliance (on a system) and b) drivers’ situation awareness. Based on an extensive review of previous research on automation, a conceptual theoretical framework was developed that links changes in operators’ active task engagement to human adaptation processes on different levels in response to the changing task demands due to automation. Among them are changes in human attitudes as well as in cognitive, motivational and energetic processes. In order to determine the relative influence of these processes, a range of objective and subjective measures was collected. The essential part of the dissertation is an extensive driving simulator study in an advanced moving-base driving simulator at VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) in Linköping, Sweden. Two lateral support systems (a Heading Control system and a Lane Departure Warning system) were implemented which assisted drivers to different degrees in lane keeping. Contrary to most previous automation studies, drivers’ reliance on the lane keeping assistance systems and their situation awareness were studied by using process-oriented performance-based measures. Drivers’ reliance on the lane keeping assistance systems was assessed by eye glance behaviour measures indicating drivers’ preparedness to allocate their visual attention away from the road scene to an in-vehicle secondary task. Drivers’ situation awareness was assessed by behavioural measures of the latency and magnitude of drivers’ initial reactions to unexpected critical driving situations. A major finding of the study was that drivers differed significantly in their reliance on a high level of lane keeping assistance. This interindividual variance in drivers’ reliance on higher-level assistance could be best explained by drivers’ trust in the system and their energetic arousal: The greater drivers’ trust in the system and the lower their arousal, the more did they rely on the system. Individual driver variables (driving style) explained a significant proportion of the variance in drivers’ trust in the lane keeping assistance systems. (replaced because a new publisher)

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Designing and implementing an instrumentation cockpit display system presents many unique challenges. The system must be easy to use, yet highly customizable. Typically, these systems require an experienced programmer to create graphical display screens. Furthermore, most current display systems do not provide for bi-directional communication between the instrumentation system and the display system. This paper discusses an architecture that addresses these issues and other common problems with cockpit displays. This system captures data from the instrumentation system, displays parameters, and returns calculated parameters and status information regarding pilot actions to the instrumentation system. Unlike traditional systems, the configuration of the graphical presentation of the cockpit display can be done by a non-programmer. All communication between the instrumentation system and the cockpit display system is done transparently using XML. The usage of XML in this system facilitates real-time form previewing, cross-platform compatibility, and seamless transitions between project management, graphical configuration, and engineering unit conversions.

Prior work has indicated that preventing Cdc42 interacting with its downstream effector proteins can reverse Ras-driven oncogenesis. The experiments demonstrating this used the G protein binding region (GBD) of the Cdc42-specific effector ACK, which is 42 amino acids long and binds with 40 nM affinity. The aim of this work was to find a peptide which exhibits similar effects in reversing oncogenic characteristics in cells but with more promising therapeutic properties: for example, a smaller size, improved binding and improved protease resistance. Firstly, the Cdc42-ACK binding interface was characterised thermodynamically, producing a comprehensive dataset of the contribution of individual ACK residues to complex affinity. This information revealed regions of the ACK GBD with higher concentrations of vital interactions but also residues that were unimportant for maintaining affinity. An \emph{in vitro} display technology (CIS-display) was employed to select for shorter peptides with improved binding to Cdc42. By selecting the best binders from libraries based on the ACK GBD, peptides have been generated that are half the length of the full binding domain but bind with affinities approaching the wild-type ($\approx$100 nM). More interestingly, a serendipitous discovery in a na\"{\i}ve cyclic library revealed a 16-residue sequence that binds with 350 nM affinity, subsequently called C1. The biophysical properties of selected peptides were characterised and demonstrate that C1 is reliant on an intramolecular disulphide bond for tight binding. An N-terminal nona-arginine sequence was added to C1 to facilitate entry into cells: internalisation was confirmed by confocal microscopy. Subsequently it was found that C1 reduced signalling through the ACK and PAK effector pathways, negatively impinging on MAPK signalling. Levels of signalling returned to baseline within 24 hours, however, and the transiency of the effect was thought to be linked to peptide degradation: an effect likely in a construct dependent on a disulphide bond for cyclisation and binding affinity. Subsequent maturation of C1 using a focussed CIS-display library has selected second generation peptides. These have been characterized and display binding affinities to Cdc42 of $\approx$20 nM: a 17-fold increase in binding over C1. This has enhanced the affinity to a level even higher than wild-type ACK and should improve the cellular potency of the peptides identified in this selection. %any more?! Having successfully selected peptides both shorter in length and with higher affinity than the wild-type sequence, efforts were channelled into developing a method to cyclize the peptide by a chemical linkage that would be stable in a cellular environment. The most successful approach involved desulphurisation of the disulphide bond to a thioether, making the cyclic linkage non-labile in the reducing environment of the cytosol, while retaining original binding affinity. The peptides developed in this work bind to Cdc42 with nanomolar affinity \emph{in vitro} and can enter cells and impact upon signalling processes connected with oncogenesis. As such, they provide a potential therapeutic lead for future development.

The demand for in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) has been increasing through the years. There are numerous systems that can be incorporated into vehicles and various ways in which the information can and should be presented to the driver. The way the information is presented to the drivers is extremely important in terms of increasing safety and decreasing driver distraction. The expected outcomes of this research included the development of human factors guidelines for the design and use of in-vehicle information systems. It was a desirable goal to identify the most suitable information presentation formats for certain tasks, since this may influence the drivers' attention and driving performance. This study focused on how the factors of interest may affect drivers' attention and driving performance while performing IVIS secondary tasks related to specific applications. This was accomplished through an on-road within-factors experiment. Sixteen participants performed secondary tasks related to three IVIS applications at two levels of difficulty. The tasks were presented using five types of displays. Data collected from video and in-vehicle sensors were statistically analyzed to determine significant effects between the factors. Driving performance, external reaction time, and perceived mental workload results were compiled into general guidelines for the design and use of IVIS. The findings of this study strongly suggest that visual displays should not be used for the presentation of IVIS. Auditory and multi-modal (i.e. both visual and auditory interface) displays are the most appropriate ways to present IVIS information. A normal speech rate is preferred over a fast speech rate. IVIS tasks should be kept as simple as possible in terms of the number of steps. From the three manipulated factors (type of display, IVIS application, and task level of difficulty), the type of display had the largest number of significant results across the dependent variables measurements. The visual display led to the worst driver performance, while auditory and multi-modal displays yielded significantly better driving performance.
Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xvii, 104 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-104). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

This thesis investigates how gesture-driven interfaces, integrated in HMD- based (Head-Mounted Display) Augmented Reality (AR) devices can be used in the context of order picking processes in logistic warehouses as a substitute to existing solutions for visualisation and interaction with order picking lists: which hand gestures should be used? What qualities are essential for designing a successful substitute? By applying an User-Centered Design approach, generative ideation methodologies, prototyping and usability testing this research results in a contribution to a framework of design guidelines for designing gesture-driven AR in the order picking process, as well as a proposition of a gestural interaction language grounded in both earlier research and empirical findings. The empirical findings include details of the end users’ gestural interaction preferences and content-related considerations, which was implemented in a low fidelity prototype and evaluated in the contextual domain of the end users.

博士
國立中正大學
電機工程研究所
91
ABSTRACT Due to advanced development in microelectronics, integrated circuits and computers, displays have become a kind of the most important devices for man-machine interface. Flat display market has grown vary fast. Plasma display panels (PDPs) are considered the most promising flat display devices for large-scale high-definition TV, because they have the advantages of high resolution, fast response, wide view angle, light weight and easy to be developed into large-scale production. However, there are several aspects which need to be solved and improved to be widely accepted to commercial markets. Improving luminous efficiency and reducing production cost are the current development and design trend. Increase of luminous efficiency of the panel can reduce power consumption, and manufacturing with low tolerance can adopt address and scan IC’s with low voltage, which in turn can reduce system cost significantly. The purpose of this thesis is to design driving systems for ac PDPs, especially emphasizing on the investigation of power-system efficiency improvements, PDP driving circuits and driving waveforms. In efficiency improvement, boost power factor correctors with an active flyback soft-switching cell and a passive one are respectively designed and presented, which can yield efficiency being higher than 92 . Additionally, sustainers with energy recovery circuits are proposed to achieve soft-switching features and to further reduce power consumption. The proposed sustainers can reduce currents through switches and non-linear effects due to parasitic and distributed components along its conduction paths, which result in low component stresses and low electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels. It has been found that driving waveforms are the most critical issues in achieving better performance, such as raising luminous efficiency, increasing contrast ratio and resolution, and solving for static and dynamic false contours. To improve these aspects for PDPs, three switch-mode reset circuits based on the flyback converter topology are proposed to generate ramp-like reset waveforms with more efficient and flexible, and have more degrees of freedom in programming the reset waveforms. Moreover, the proposed flyback circuits stack a ramp-like waveform on a square-sustain waveform to induce self-erasing discharges which can improve luminous efficiency significantly. Finally, based on operation principles, analysis, design procedure and simulation, driving systems are implemented for a 46-in PDP. Hardware measurements have verified the theoretical discussions and the feasibility of the proposed driving algorithms and schemes.

博士
國立臺灣大學
電機工程學研究所
89
Plasma display panels (PDPs) have advantages over conventional display technologies by their large screen size, thinness, long life time and wide viewing angle. It is likely that PDPs will soon become consumer affordable color display with large diagonal. In this dissertation, we focus on the energy recovery driving circuit and the driving waveform for PDP. First, some prior driving circuits will be analyzed and two regenerative energy recovery drivers are proposed. The proposed drivers utilize inductors to resonate with the equivalent intrinsic capacitance of the PDP to mainly recover the energy losses due to the displacement current of the PDP. All switches are operated with zero voltage switching. Moreover, the inductors of the second proposed driver are utilized as current sources to supply the gas discharge current for the PDP to reduce notches in the sustaining voltage waveform and enlarge the operation voltage margin of the PDP. Then, several driving waveforms are introduced and we propose a novel driving waveform. A small amount of wall charges is produced before the addressing period so that we can achieve the addressing operation with lower data voltage, which may reduce the cost of the PDP system.

碩士
大同大學
電機工程學系(所)
99
In this thesis, a driving circuit for a 4?e4 matrix cholesterol liquid crystal display is proposed. This design includes shift register, data latch, counter, digital logic circuit, switching register string, operation amplifier which has a high voltage output. The column and row’s HV outputs are switching twice in a clock period. The voltage difference between the two terminals of the cholesterol liquid crystal determines the gray level, which is controlled by a 4-bit DAC. The proposed cholesterol liquid crystal driver was simulated using TSMC 0.25μm HV process model with a 5V supply and 60V supply. The HV OPAMP is configured as an non-inverting amplifier with the gain controlled by the external resistors. The reference voltages of row’s driver are provided externally for flexibility. The overall layout area is 1517umX900um.

碩士
國立中興大學
電機工程學系所
94
For a traditional field emission display, it needs an adequate voltage between gate and cathode to create a strong electric field. However, experimentally the beam current emitting from the cold cathode generally is unstable. It means if we apply the same gate-cathode voltage on different pixels, one cannot obtain an equal emission current. According to above mentioned, we need a stable current source which can control the emission current and reach good uniformity. Since the luminosity of an FED is directly proportional to its emission current density, the current-mode driving scheme appears to be a natural way for the high quality FED. As a stable current source, the voltage-control-current-source (VCCS) can be applied to control emitting current exactly to achieve high current uniformity and to reduce the affection from the process variation of the micro-emission-array. For the VCCS circuit, the emission current is controlled from cathode instead of the gate-cathode. In this thesis, we design two driver circuits, one is for the off-glass operation and one is for the on-glass operation, for FED. The off-glass driver circuit uses TSMC 0.35um 2P4M CMOS process to design and the on-glass circuit utilizes LTPS process to achieve SOG. The voltage-controlled current source which is composed of composite CMOS for the off-glass FED driver. This circuit can control the emission current to achieve uniformity. The gray level and brightness contrast can be adjusted by varying the input voltage of the circuit. In order to maintain the emission current in a frame time, we combine the voltage- controlled current source and switched-current (SI) memory cell together. After integrating SI memory cell, it still has the advantages of good current uniformity and gray level can control through the input voltage of the voltage controlled current source and then improve the quality of the FED panel. By integrating peripheral driver circuits on the FED panel, the number of external connections is largely reduced. The driver circuits can be integrated through the poly-Si thin film transistors (TFTs) called the on-glass driver IC.

博士
國立臺灣大學
電機工程學研究所
89
Plasma display panel (PDP) is praised for its large screen size, wide viewing angle, long life, and thinness, etc. It is a promising technology for applications such as high definition television (HDTV) or high-resolution computer workstation monitors. The main stream AC PDP basically comprises top and bottom insulating substrates, and a discharging gas sealed between them. Because the electrodes on the top substrate are covered with dielectric material, PDP is shown to have inherent capacitance during voltage transients. The panel could be continuously lighted up by AC square wave. In this dissertation, several prior arts are analyzed first and then two novel energy recovery drivers are proposed. The proposed circuits use the parallel resonance between the inductor and the intrinsic capacitance of PDP to mainly recover the energy lost by the capacitive displacement current of PDP. One of the proposed drivers could prevent the parasitic resonance caused by the inductance and the stray capacitance. In additions, the energy of the parasitic resonance can be sent back to the power source. It has not only simple structure (low cost) but also less energy loss. On the other hand, the second proposed driver could maintain the AC PDP to light up at lower voltage with current compensation. Besides, four switches of the full bridge are all operated with zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn-on.

碩士
大同大學
工業設計學系(所)
93
With the development of communication technique, the information can be provided to the drivers by GPS. Therefore, not only the proper communicational interface, but also the comfortable seats are important to drivers. Therefore, the placement of GPS display of car-interior was investigated, firstly. Then, the experiment was done by a driving simulator and the comfort level was analyzed by NASA-TLX, blink rate and GPS accuracy. For tall-male group, the movement of seat is 540mm-610mm, the height of seat is not specific, the inclination of seat is 95°-100° and the height of GPS display is 580mm. For average-male group, the movement of seat is 540mm-610mm, the height of seat is 145mm-160mm, the inclination of seat is 95°and the height of GPS display is 580mm. For short-male, the movement of seat is 540mm, the height of seat is 145mm, the inclination of seat is 95° and the height of GPS display is 580mm. For female group, the movement of seat is 540mm, the height of seat is145mm, the inclination of seat is 100° and the height of GPS display is 580mm. The postural angles was analyzed that drivers might feel uncomfortable at the 30-minute, but the blink rate was analyzed that when the driving process was over the 25-minute, the drivers may tend to feel uncomfortable. Finally, the back-propagation neural network was done with the input (height, weight and the dimensions of the parts of body of subjects) and the output (NASA-TLX, GPS display accuracy and blink rate). The forecasting model is good for car-interior designer and the drivers.

碩士
義守大學
工業管理學系
101
In order to enhance the level of recognition of traffic signs, the units actively developing a variety of self-luminous traffic signs, such as the common way to present information on the contents of an immutable LED traffic signs and traffic signs were rod-type boxes, however, despite the recognition distance increases, but its identification clarity is also followed upgrade is also very important, therefore, this study focuses on the hope that by experiment to explore during the day and night, the use of LED signs and light boxes reflective paper over its definition is a good sign to come. In this study, 20 subjects were raised experiments, and in this study, commissioned by manufacturers for outdoor use flags to be made, so that each flag definition participant responses, and collect data for analysis. The results showed that in the daytime, LED, light boxes and reflective paper on their degree of recognition and no significant differences, but the LED signs, some participants will be attached to the signs of the impact of LED beads recognizable; lights in the night source is turned on, the best recognizable boxes, followed by reflective paper, the worst is the LED; light source at night will sign off, reflective paper recognizable best, followed by LED, the worst is the box. Therefore, according to the results of this study suggest should stop using the daytime and night regardless of their recognition results are worse than conventional reflective paper of LED signs, and in the box material is also recommended to use translucent and reflective paper to solve the nighttime light source failure cause identification degree decreases. The results of this study can provide the relevant units of reference for the design of traffic signs.

碩士
大同大學
電機工程學系(所)
101
This thesis proposes a driving circuit employing the pulse-width modulation (PWM) technique in bistable cholesterol liquid crystal display. The circuit includes digital-to-time converter, HV driver (shifting digital output to higher voltage capable of driving the bistable cholesterol liquid crystal), counter and other digital logic such as shift registers, data latches and multiplexers. The proposed driver was implemented in two ways to drive a 4x4 cholesterol liquid crystal array. The first was demonstrated by employing ALTERA DE2-70 development board plus external soldering circuit which contains SOIC named APM4588K. The second was designed using TSMC 0.25μm 2P3M HV process model with a 5V supply and 60V supply. In the end, the simulation is made to ensure the circuit fits the cholesterol liquid crystal array.

碩士
大同大學
電機工程學系(所)
95
This thesis presents a bus type driving circuit for 20-inch field emission display (FED) of Tatung Company. The display goal is: frame rate 60fps, monitor resolution 800×600, 24 bits color depth, and non-interlaced scan. It contains a main controller as a bus master. Scan and data controller are bus slaves. The main controller is also connecting with input signal sent from DVI receiver and stored in two bank SRAMs. Using a divided pulse width modulation (PWM) method which is called frame rate control (FRC) method in plasma display panel (PDP), the input data should divided into eight weights. The scan driver is just selecting row one by one. The data driver is generating eight kinds of sub-frames. Then these sub-frames can generate 256 gray levels. The designed driving logic can be implemented in FPGA and simulated in Xilinx ISE 9.1.

碩士
大同大學
電機工程研究所
94
The purpose of this thesis is to develop an ac driving circuit design for plasma display panel with energy recovery. The proposed circuit used the parallel resonance between the inductor and the intrinsic capacitance of the PDP which recover the energy to external capacitor due to the capacitive discharge of the PDP. The control technique based on phase shift pulse width modulation and collocates with suitable control of duty cycle. During the resonance period, all switches can be achieved soft switching. So that switching stress, switching loss and the energy recovery efficiency can be improved. Finally, a single chip microprocessor Xilinx XC2S50E is used in this system and an experiment hardware scheme is established by the proposed principle. The experimental results prove the proposed structure to achieve performance as expected.

碩士
華梵大學
電子工程學系碩士班
106
As technology continues to advance, the technology of thin-film transistor LCDs continues to mature, and there are different methods of use in applications. The application of panel and signal detection occupy a certain position in the development of products, and how to use different methods A variety of controllers to drive the panel also become more important. This paper will use two different types of controllers to drive the LCD panel to understand the principles of panel drivers and the problems encountered with different types of controllers. Focusing on the most popular microcontrollers today, using the SSD1963 control chip, through the SPI serial interface signal output and input, drive the LCD panel to control drawing graphics and other functions, the other is to use the FPGA through the VGA signal line to connect the LCD The body display uses different signal generation and output to change the display effect of the liquid crystal display, so that the liquid crystal display displays the color drawn from the signal of the FPGA.

碩士
大同大學
光電工程研究所
94
Field Emission Display (FED) is a competitive display. There are advantages over other display panels by low driver voltage, high luminescence efficiency, and saving energy. This thesis focuses on the pixel driving circuits of the FED. The FED data driver processes the signals receiving from the timing controller, such as control signals, and timing signals. It then transforming these controls signals correctly on the FED panel and displays them as an image. When data input into driving circuit, we divided them into two parts including digital circuit and analog circuit. Digital circuit is responsible to process the control signal which produces by the timing controller. Analog circuit is responsible to processing the signal produced by digital circuit. It transforming the driving voltage and the signal to a panel and display them as an image. We utilized the Hspice simulation in the UMC 0.5um/0.6um Embedded High Voltage 5V/80V 1P2M Process SPICE Model to design the analog circuits.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
電子工程系
95
A suitable AC power supply for the Electroluminescent Display is presented in this thesis. The circuit mainly consists of a front-stage power factor corrector and a single-phase full-bridge inverter. A PIC16F873A microcontroller produces SPWM signals which can reduce the ELD driving current to be much lower than 10mA/nF and help to extend the lamp lifetime. An axuiliary power supply is designed for the PIC microcontroller and the PowerMOS gate driver, so that the circuit can be directly operated via AC line. The output brightness control circuit is also proposed in this thesis. After a long time of usage and the aging of ELD happen, the circuit will adjust the output frequency to maintain the ELD output brightness and increase the effective working hours.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
電機工程學研究所
90
The simple manufacture process flow and low total cost are major advantages of the small size passive matrix organic light emitting display (PMOLED). In this thesis, the PMOLED characteristics were measured. The constant current source was choice to drive PMOLED that results stable and easy to control brightness. Base on the characterization results, a low power consumption column driver and row driver was developed for color PMOLED. The major portions included: a low total current 16-gray scale switching type pulse width modulation (PWM) output driving current control circuit, a low semiconductor process deviation impact 4-bit digital control current source, a 4-bit digital control voltage source for pre-charge circuit which reduce PMOLED parasitic capacitance charge time, a flexible partial display control circuit, and a real time adjustable DC/DC converter.

碩士
國立交通大學
顯示科技研究所
102
For all the electronic modules in a liquid crystal display, the power consumption of data driver is only less than the backlight, and most part of the power is used for signal converting. In this thesis, we proposed a new kind of pixel circuit with full digital signal driving. As a result, the signal converting part in the data driver can be omitted and the power consumption can be greatly reduced. The proposed pixel circuit contains two thin film transistors and a resistor in series, forming a discharging path for pixel voltage. There is also another transistor used to pre-charge the pixel circuit. The gray level is controlled by the pulse width of the data source when the pixel is enabled by the scan voltage. The operation of the novel design is verified by simulation in the cases of small and large size panels. We compare the novel design with conventional 1T1C pixel circuit in the aspects such as dynamic power consumption, design tolerance, and aperture ratio. After all, the proposed pixel circuit with the newly driving method is an innovation approach to reduce data driver power consumption.

碩士
大同大學
工業設計學系(所)
99
“Head-Up Display (HUD)” is a product that appeared in the market in recent years as a result of the automobile industry’s development and drivers’ requirements. Its purpose is to let drivers more easily access information on their vehicles. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of driving information and elements of HUD on drivers. The experiment of this study consists of two stages. For the first stage, a questionnaire survey is conducted in the preliminary study to understand the general opinion of the perception and cognition of HUD users, as well as the relationship of background transparency and text color with visibility. Results of the preliminary study are as follows: (1) The percentage of people that heard of HUD (62.5%) was higher than the percentage of people that used HUD (34.7%). The main reason that people used HUD was because it was already in the car when they bought it (60%). (2) The questionnaire on users’ perception and cognition indicates that most subjects held a positive attitude towards the integration of HUD with vehicle information, and that they were very willing to use the technology. (3) HUD users have higher opinions of the technology integrating HUD with vehicle information compared with those who haven’t used HUD before. (4) In the survey on vehicle information, car speed related information, e.g. carspeed and speed limit, ranked at the top. (5) In the study on the relationship between background transparency and text color with visibility, higher contrast between interface information and background increases the visibility of interface information. Next, experiment variables found in the preliminary study and literature review, e.g.speed information (green, orange, blue, and white), different quantitative displays (round,level, digital, and round + digital), and different figures of speed limit (solid, outline),were used in an orthogonal array L16 to design 16 interfaces, which were used for driving simulations and the questionnaire for user interface satisfaction (QUIS). Results show that static warning signs, e.g. speed limit signs, are best displayed as outlines; round figures(similar to the speedometer) are better for displaying quantities, e.g. car speed. In terms of color, it is better for information to be displayed in white with higher brightness. Automobile interfaces are becoming more and more high-tech and diverse as a result of the automobile industry’s development. However, among the multitudes of products in the market, only those that give consideration to people’s needs and abilities will be accepted and used, and only then will products have value and meaning for existence.

博士
國立臺灣大學
電機工程學研究所
91
AC plasma display is highly promising for large screen flat panel displays, and is now widespread in wall mounted display systems and televisions. This paper proposes the use of resonant pole inverter (RPI) as the control circuit to drive the data electrodes of AC plasma display panel (PDP). This new application of RPI simplifies the circuit design by using fewer components, and has lower power losses than conventional driver circuits. The circuit employs two resonant MOSFETs and zero voltage switching (ZVS) technique to generate an asymmetric pulse train with moderate rising and falling time to drive the data electrodes of a PDP. The circuit also recovers the reactive energy from the PDP, like conventional energy recovery circuits. Adding a DC offset voltage to the pulse train further reduces power losses. The power consumptions of different driving circuits are assessed. The proposed circuit is tested on a dual scan 42-inch SVGA AC plasma display panel and found advantageous in practical applications.

碩士
國立高雄應用科技大學
工業工程與管理系碩士在職專班
103
Drivers nowadays, especially for business operations, have to work inde-pendently with high concentration under long working hours, and they may have higher likelihood to endanger both themselves and other people’s lives; comparing to the past, the accidents may take place in even more unexpected manners. The drivers are overloaded by information from the traffic conditions (other vehicles, people, road conditions, traffic signs … etc) as well as the information from the vehicles (oil, gear, speed, temperature, passengers, interruptions of other lights and sounds … etc.). It is even more challenging for the drivers to maintain the focus span in such long hours. This report focus on the impact of Head Up Display (HUD) to the larger vehi-cles’ drivers. Hence, the study highlight is on NASA-TLX (National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index), in another word, we are trying to evaluate the adaptability of the drivers with the integrated user interface of the HUD information display. NASA-TLX attributes the workload into six major factors, namely the Mental Demand, Physical Demand, Temporal Demand, Effort, Frustration and Perfor-mance. This report uses NASA-TLX as the evaluation measurement of HUD to the drivers. This research analyses the impact to the drivers’ capability to handle the assigned task through the installation of HUD with NASA-TLX volume table questionnaire survey. We have used SPSS software package to analyze the survey feedback data from drivers with different car types; the survey is mainly focus on the drivers’ feeling of the work load differences under different circumstances. In order to better understand the feedbacks, we have conducted inter-view with the drivers after the surveys. After analysis, we have proved that the placement of HUD at the back of the larger vehicles helps the drivers to reduce the workload index and improves the drivers’ concentration and reducing the accident rates. Vehicle manufacturers may take this study into their design consideration to improve the car safety and expand the applications and the business opportunities of HUD.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
光電工程學研究所
96
We combine two kinds of proposed circuits to compensate and drive active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED). Both the circuits can compensate threshold voltage variation of drive thin film transistors (TFTs). First circuit has fewer components. It consists of two TFTs, one capacitor, and three external signal lines. So, the scheme can achieve high aperture ratio. Second circuit has more components. It consists of five TFTs, one capacitor, and four external signal lines. But, it not only compensates the variation of the threshold voltage of TFTs but also improves the lifetime of OLED. We propose a circuit scheme that takes advantage of two circuits to achieve higher aperture than second circuit and increase the lifetime of AMOLED display simultaneously.

碩士
國立交通大學
電機學院碩士在職專班電子與光電組
97
Nowadays, TFT-LCDs can fulfill most requirements of the applications including TV, digital camera, notebook, PDA, mobile phone, etc. However, compared to Cathode Ray Tub (CRT), the hold type driving of LCDs results in the issue of motion blur. Since 2001, several methods to reduce the motion blur have been developed for LCDs. The Motion Picture Response Time (MPRT) as a parameter is used to quantify the level of motion blur. In order to resolve the issue of motion blur, a combination of an LCD panel with black band inserting and an LED backlight with scanning driving was proposed. The scanning method and the black data insertion function can simulate the CRT-like driving. The MPRT can greatly decrease from 14.2 to 4.7 ms and the backlight power consumption can reduce from 42 to 26 W by the proposed method. The experimental results show that the motion blur on LCDs can be effectively improved in human perception.

碩士
國立中央大學
資訊工程學系在職專班
101
The paperlike electrophoretic display has many advantages as it can keep the higher contrast ratio at the heavy light exposure environment which can let the reading behavior be more comfortable and really let people read the book for a longer while and won’t feel the eyestrain as TFT-LCD display which is the backlight structure design and moreover is the power saving, this kind display just consume the electric power when the user do the text paging behavior and update the pattern by the driver due to its Bi-stability characteristic own. Otherwise, the earth resource is exhausting in this century more and more, resource saving will be an important topic currently. Although this material has many advantages, the most popular handheld reading device is the TFT-LCD backlight display like Pad and Smart phone not the electrophoretic display. The people would to study some contents by LCD device but won’t attempt to open the content file on EPD device. The lower material response time to switch patterns and some flicker vision are dominated to affect the user’s operation feeling for this e-reader device. On here, we want to propose a new method to let electrophoretic particles get a short distance driving and movement to reduce the flicker vision phenomenon and want to apply this method for the reader navigator to improve the speed when people slide the menu and decide what reading content they want to have smoothly.