title: Curvilinear approach to an intersection and visual detection of a collision.
abstract: Visual motion perception plays a fundamental role in vehicle control. Recent studies have shown that the pattern of optical flow resulting from the observer's self-motion through a stable environment is used by the observer to accurately control his or her movements. However, little is known about the perception of another vehicle during self-motion--for instance, when a car driver approaches an intersection with traffic. In a series of experiments using visual simulations of car driving, we show that observers are able to detect the presence of a moving object during self-motion. However, the perception of the other car's trajectory appears to be strongly dependent on environmental factors, such as the presence of a road sign near the intersection or the shape of the road. These results suggest that local and global visual factors determine the perception of a car's trajectory during self-motion.
authors.affiliation: French National Institute for Research on Transportation and Safety (INRETS), Salon-de-Provence.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berthelon
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mestre
mesh_terms: D001334:Automobile Driving; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis