Patent ID: 8597027

Claim:
A method for permitting the measurement of a combination of visual and cognitive processes necessary for safe driving-object detection, recognition of particular objects as actual or potential safety threats or traffic hazards, and the continuous switching of visual attention between objects while driving according to their instantaneous priority as safety threats or traffic hazards, using a computing device including a high speed graphics card, an internal hard drive with high speed access, a monitor or display unit, and a pointing device, by a user comprising the steps of: initializing the computing device to play a dynamic driving video to measure a user's skill in visually searching and scanning a roadway environment; playing the dynamic driving video on the user's command to rapidly direct and re-direct the user's attention to objects in or near the user's virtual driving path according to the objects' priority as safety threats or traffic hazards; moving an icon across the display under the user's command, said icon being superimposed on the dynamic driving video, to indicate how the user directs and redirects the attention to objects in or near the user's virtual driving path according to the user's perception of the objects' priority as safety threats or safety hazards; dynamically storing the user's selection of objects by capturing the time and video frame imagery of each of the user selections of safety threat or traffic hazard objects, monitoring the length of time the user keeps the icon on a selected interactive target area representing one object and the number of times the user returns to the same selected interactive target area representing the same object, monitoring the length of time as the user moves the icon to a different interactive target area representing another object and the number of times the user returns to any of the previously selected interactive target areas representing objects, and storing all of the collected information for use in assessing and measuring the user's performance; comparing the user's selection of objects against stored information obtained from acknowledged experts in this skill area; and providing feedback to the user about the type, location, timing of search and scanning performance errors, and remedial strategies to correct such errors.