Assessing mental workload of in-vehicle information systems by using physiological metrics

Abstract

Use of physiological indices including ECGs and EMGs was investigated for estimation of drivers' mental workload induced by using in-vehicle information system (IVIS). The subject performed multiple simultaneous task paradigm consisted of driving using driving simulator, use of car navigation system and stimulus detection task paradigm. The results indicated that muscular loads obtained by EMGs tended to show higher activity in coherent with the level of mental workload and high correlation coefficient between muscular loads. The performance associated with stimulus detection task revealed the potential use of EMG signals as an index for evaluating mental workload. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.