Balancing game universes for playing without sight or hearing.

Equal access to cultural activities is important for inclusion and computer gaming is one of the most common activities in digital culture. However, many people with impairments are excluded from participating. While parallel game universes (PGUs) provide a method to achieve equal access, the question is: how can a balanced collaborative real-time game be designed with the help of PGU for playing without sight or hearing? Balance is a central concept in game design and is important to avoid perceived cheating or disadvantages due to individual or environmental differences. The question was examined with a design science approach, where a game prototype was created in two iterations with a structured design method and evaluated using interviews and observations. In this first step of a more long-term study, ten experienced gamers without impairments were selected with purposive sampling to provide relevant data through simulation of temporary impairments or environmental issues, which can affect many or all gamers. By sorting out these issues first, later testing with actual blind and deaf gamers can focus on more specific issues for each group. The ten participants played either without sight or hearing. The results confirm the use of PGUs for creating a balanced experience but also finds that while multiplayer feel is not optimal, it is a reasonable trade-off for universal access for blind and deaf being able to play together. The results also show that a help system and equal understanding of the game play between the blind and deaf players are important aspects to achieve game balance. Further research should be done involving actual blind and deaf gamers, and similar evaluations of game balance should be conducted with users having other types of impairments.

Landscape heritage objects' effect on driving: a combined driving simulator and questionnaire study.

According to the literature, landscape (panoramas, heritage objects e.g. landmarks) affects people in various ways. Data are primarily developed by asking people (interviews, photo sessions, focus groups) about their preferences, but to a lesser degree by measuring how the body reacts to such objects. Personal experience while driving a car through a landscape is even more rare. In this paper we study how different types of objects in the landscape affect drivers during their drive. A high-fidelity moving-base driving simulator was used to measure choice of speed and lateral position in combination with stress (heart rate measure) and eye tracking. The data were supplemented with questionnaires. Eighteen test drivers (8 men and 10 women) with a mean age of 37 were recruited. The test drivers were exposed to different new and old types of landscape objects such as 19th century church, wind turbine, 17th century milestone and bus stop, placed at different distances from the road driven. The findings are in some respect contradictory, but it was concluded that that 33% of the test drivers felt stressed during the drive. All test drivers said that they had felt calm at times during the drive but the reason for this was only to a minor degree connected with old and modern objects. The open landscape was experienced as conducive to acceleration. Most objects were, to a small degree, experienced (subjective data) as having a speed-reducing effect, much in line with the simulator data (objective data). Objects close to the road affected the drivers' choice of' lateral position. No significant differences could be observed concerning the test drivers' gaze between old or modern objects, but a significant difference was observed between the test drivers' gaze between road stretches with faraway objects and stretches without objects. No meaningful, significant differences were found for the drivers' stress levels as measured by heart rate.

Crash barriers and driver behavior: a simulator study.

OBJECTIVE: The study examines how drivers experience a conventional W-beam guardrail (metal crash barrier) along both sides of narrow versus wider roads (single carriageway with 2 lanes) in terms of stress, feelings, and driving patterns and whether subjective experience concurs with the actual driving patterns captured by the quantitative data. METHODS: The study used different methods to capture data, including the VTI Driving Simulator III (speed and lateral vehicle position) in conjunction with electrocardiogram (ECG) data on heart rate variability (HRV) and questionnaires (oral during driving and written after driving). Eighteen participants--8 men and 10 women--were recruited for the simulator study and the simulator road section was 10 km long. RESULTS: Driving speeds increased slightly on the wider road and on the road with a crash barrier, and the lateral driving position was nearer to the road center on the narrower road and on the road with a crash barrier. The HRV data did not indicate that participants experienced greater stress due to road width or due to the presence of a crash barrier. Participant experience captured in the oral questionnaires suggested that road width did not affect driver stress or driving patterns; however, the written questionnaire results supported the simulator data, indicating that a wider road led to increased speed. None of the participants felt that crash barriers made them feel calmer. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that there is a possibility that the increased speed on roads with crash barriers may be explained by drivers' sense of increased security. This study demonstrates that an experimental design including experience-based data captured using both a simulator and questionnaires is productive. It also demonstrates that driving simulators can be used to study road features such as crash barriers. It seems more than likely that features such as street lamps, signs, and landscape objects could be tested in this way.

Car drivers' perceptions of electronic stability control (ESC) systems.

As a way to reduce the number of car crashes different in-car safety devices are being introduced. In this paper one such application is being investigated, namely the electronic stability control system (ESC). The study used a survey method, including 2000 private car drivers (1000 driving a car with ESC and 1000 driving a car without ESC). The main objective was to investigate the effect of ESC on driver behaviour. Results show that drivers report that they drive even more carelessly when they believe that they have ESC, than when they do not. Men are more risk prone than women and young drivers more than older drivers. Using the theory of planned behaviour the results show that attitude, subjective norm and perceived control explain between 62% and 67% of driver's variation of intentions to take risks. When descriptive norm was added to the model a small but statistically significant increase was found. The study also shows that more than 35% erroneously believe that their car is equipped with an ESC system. These findings may suggest that driver behaviour could reduce the positive effect ESC has on accidents. It also shows that drivers who purchase a new car are not well informed about what kind of safety devices the car is equipped with. These findings highlight the need for more targeted information to drivers.

Cooperation between police and social treatment services offering treatment to drink and drug drivers--experience in Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyze a measure that has been introduced in Sweden with the objective of quickly offering treatment for the alcohol or drug problems suspected drink or drug drivers may have. The goal of the measure is that every suspected drink or drug driver shall, as soon as apprehended by the police, be offered contact with the social services or the dependency care and treatment service, which can offer a consultation and, if needed, suitable treatment. METHOD: Interviews and questionnaire surveys, as well as forms that describe the treatment received by each individual case. RESULTS: About 20 percent of all those who receive the offer from the police accept contact with the social services or the care and treatment service, and approximately 40 percent of these also attend the consultation. There is a favorable fundamental attitude to the method among the participating authorities. However, some shortcomings in application are revealed. One example concerns drug drivers who are offered contact with the social services or the care and treatment service to a considerably lesser extent than drink drivers. Another neglected group are the people who are at first suspected of drink driving but are later found to have an alcohol concentration below the legal limit. Compared with those who have an alcohol concentration above the legal limit, this group is offered contact to a lesser extent and also have a lower propensity to accept the offer. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate a strong support for the method from involved authorities, but participation could be improved by giving more attention to neglected groups.

The long-term effect of Intelligent Speed Adaptation on driver behaviour.

This paper investigates the impact of prolonged experience with an Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) system on driver behaviour. ISA refers to a driver support system which brings speed limit information into the vehicle. Drivers' interaction with the ISA system was explored by means of data collected from long-term field trials carried out in the UK and Sweden. Results indicated that participants' overriding behaviour increased in line with system exposure. However, there was no strong evidence supporting a generalised turning point of behavioural changes (e.g. 3000km, 4000km, or 5000km accumulated experience) at which the upward trend plateaued. Driver characteristics were found to be influential on the pattern of overriding the ISA system with respect to subjective measures (intention to speed) as well as objective measures (observed speeding behaviour). Driving environment also demonstrated an impact on participants' overriding behaviour. Implications for driver behavioural changes in the presence of a generic ADAS are discussed.

Practicing in relation to the outcome of the driving test.

In Sweden, a written and a driving test must be passed for licensure, and these two examinations are the only means of verifying that learner drivers have acquired the competencies stipulated in the national curriculum. The present study investigated 18-24-year olds regarding the effects of personal background and mode of driver education instruction on the outcome of the driving test. This was done by analysing the following for individual subjects: data on practicing obtained using a questionnaire, and test results of license tests. The results suggest that among the candidates under study, there are equal opportunities in the context of obtaining a driver's license independent of a person's background. The rate of passing was higher for those who started behind-the-wheel training at 16 and applied to take the driving test via a driving school, than for those who started the training at an older age and applied to take the test in person. It was also found that the probability of passing the test was greater if there is successful cooperation between learner and driving school instructor, and if a large proportion of the training been devoted to the task speed adaptation.

Predicting older drivers' accident involvement--Smeed's law revisited.

The present study used Swedish archival data on police-reported accidents and license statistics and Swedish questionnaire data on car use in order to test an underinvolvement hypothesis of older drivers' (65-84 years) accident involvement, postulating that the increase in older drivers' accident involvement is smaller than the increase in older drivers' presence in traffic. The results gave support to the hypothesis. Compared to the accident involvement trend in the general driver population, there was a relative decrease over time in older drivers' accident involvement per driver license and per active driver from 1983 to 1999. It is concluded that linear predictions of older drivers' accident involvement directly based on their increasing presence in traffic are likely to be overly pessimistic.