# HMD-Based VR Tool for Traffic Psychological Examination: Conceptualization and Design Proposition
## 1 Introduction  
With the increasing density of traffic infrastructure, effective driver examinations represent an important issue for the public as well as the business sphere. Current examination tools, usually psychological, provide satisfactory but not an exhaustive nor automated source of predictions about real driving skills of an individual. Additionally, they are limited in several ways, including time and cost efficiency, reliability or limited application for specific populations, e.g., aging people. Real traffic examinations are often problematic due to considerable risks, necessary approvals, high costs for test sites and unpredictable conditions such as traffic density, etc. Regarding this, driving simulators are being used as an alternative for driver skills assessment. High-fidelity driving simulators are usually expensive and immobile so the potential of cost-effective immersive virtual reality solutions for various issues in the traffic industry is being discussed, studied and tested [1]. Mobile/wearable virtual-reality-based driving simulations represent strongly established tools in traffic research [1, 2], which have the potential to study complex activity such as driving, while securing an ecologically valid context. With respect to dynamicdevelopment of the automotive industry and rapid and continuous development of immersive VR technologies, the possibilities of using VR technologies in driving simulations with the goal to promote cost-effective as well as reliable diagnostics about driving performance have emerged. [PERSON] et al. indicated VR as a strategic tool for automotive industry development, including training of automated vehicles' driving [3]. In this review we focus primarily on head-mounted displays (HMD) and immersive virtual technology as tools for driving assessment within traffic psychological examinations. The HMD is a helmet with glasses displaying a 3-dimensional picture of the virtual environment and is usually complemented with a head tracking device. Since current HMDs may be equipped with sensors for the tracking of eye movements [4; 5], the additional measures indicating drivers cognitive processing or emotional and physiological states can be easily recorded and analyzed.  
Using a psychological theoretical background, the goal of this article is to summarize relevant existing research and create a viable concept of an affordable, effective and valid VR assessment tool that will be able to identify drivers who possess limited abilities to perform safe driving in real traffic. We outline and discuss the combination of wearable HMDs with an interactive car cockpit interface including auditory (spatialized sound) and haptic feedback as a promising platform for driving skills within traffic psychological examination. For this purpose, existing psychological phenomena relevant for driving skills are discussed and the potential and suitability of VR technology for valid traffic psychological examination is analyzed and further discussed. Additionally, we outline potentially affordable measures for driving assessment based on recent advances of low-cost virtual technologies. The motivation for designing and developing an effective VR-based examination platform is especially centered around the attainment of reliability, time effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, the possibility to take the HMD everywhere and to automate the driver examination process, but also the ecological validity of the standard traffic psychological examination, which is necessary and frequently disputed.