Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Car engine starts
You typically evaluate driving competency
with an on road-driving exam and the problem with on road testing is multiple. One is,
it's a very variable, from one testing center to another, they use different roads, different
traffic patterns, different weather conditions so you're never comparing anybody with the
same yardstick. The second thing is that the evaluation is being made on subjective judgments
by the examiner. With a virtual reality system, where everybody's exposed to the same challenges,
everybody's objectively evaluated by the computer analysis of performance in the same way and
they do that in a virtual world, which is safe, as opposed to the real world, which
has potential dangers to it. We have simulators in the service center in
Charlottesville and up in Fairfax. We're looking at three basic types of skills: vision, motor
skills and cognitive skills. Computer instruction: select the signs that
you recently passed in the order you passed them.
It uses and requires the same cognitive, behavioral skills and ability that's involved in driving,
it doesn't necessarily feel exactly like driving. The reaction time test for the simulator involves
driving behind a lead car and the brake lights come on 10 times and during that 10 times
we quantify how quickly you withdraw your foot from the accelerator and press the brake
pedal. In addition to all that, we have the people
drive through a virtual world and we look at how well they maintain lane position, how
well they follow the speed limits, how well they stop or don't stop at stop signals, how
well they follow the rules of they road. We have multiple studies going on. One study
is ourselves and Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md., where we're working with
traumatic brain injury and evaluating and seeing if we can improve that condition. We
have another study going on with the University of Iowa where we're working with young people
who have high-functioning Autism. Well, the other hat we wear is a clinical
hat, where we take referrals from physicians, from DMVs, from concerned family members and
from older people themselves who just want to find out, "where am I in terms of my driving
safety?"