SGER: Exploratory Research to Diagnose Dementia from Vehicle Operation Data

[0302255]本研究探讨了通过刻画车辆在道路上的运行特征来诊断和监测驾驶员痴呆状态的可行性。研究计划包括五个要素：人的传递函数、车辆运行数据、痴呆症建模、从痴呆症模型参数值相关的数据中提取的度量，以及评估方法性能的实验手段。实验要求普通志愿者（协助进行研究的工程本科生）驾驶一辆装有传感器的电动滑板车，以监测车辆的位置、速度、加速度和方向；附近物体的位置；以及驾驶员控制滑板车操纵杆的动作。这款滑板车还可以通过编程来调整驾驶员的动作，就像驾驶员患有痴呆症一样。信号处理程序从驾驶数据中提取与痴呆症相关的特征，包括反应速度减慢、判断力差和不适当的行为。在这些实验中，“正确答案”是已知的，因为“痴呆症模拟器”通过在操纵杆控制中引入延迟来模仿减慢的反应速度。在操纵杆信号中类似的随机修改模拟了糟糕的判断和不适当的行为。然后，随着痴呆程度的增加，车辆显示了驾驶行为的退化。滑板车的初步结果和计算机模拟验证了这一说法。研究结果预计将发表在工程界的《IEEE生物医学工程学报》和《IEEE机器人与自动化学报》上，以及临床界的《美国老年医学会杂志》上。

0302255KucThis research explores the feasibility of diagnosing and monitoring an operator's state of dementia by characterizing on-road operation of a vehicle. Five elements comprise the research plan: the human transfer function, vehicle operation data, dementia modeling, measures extracted from data that correlate with dementia model parameter values, and an experimental means to assess the performance of the methods.The experiments involve normal volunteers (engineering undergraduates who assist in the conduct of the research) drive an electric scooter equipped with sensors to monitor vehicle location, speed, acceleration, and direction; position of nearby objects; and, the driver's actions in controlling the scooter joystick. The scooter can also be programmed to modify the driver's actions, as if the driver had dementia. Signal processing procedures extract features in the driving data that correlate with dementia, which include slowed reaction speed, poor judgment and inappropriate actions. In these experiments the "correct answer" is known because the "dementia simulator" mimics slowed reaction speed by introducing a delay in the joystick control. Similar random modifications in the joystick signals simulate poor judgment and inappropriate actions. The vehicle then illustrates the degradation of driving behavior as the degree of dementia increases. Preliminary scooter results and computer simulations verify this claim. Results of the research are expected to be reported in the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation for the engineering community, and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society for the clinical community.