Enhancement of driving skill by a modification of the body schema induced by endermatic low-frequency stimulus

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25630179
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Control engineering/System engineering
• Research Institution: Tokyo Denki University
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI Satoshi 東京電機大学, 未来科学部, 准教授 (20328537)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 身体図式 / 支援制御 / 経皮低周波刺激 / 熟達 / ドライビングシミュレータ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By focusing on body schema which relates to a feel of the width of vehicle on its driving, an elemental study for its driving assistance method inducing the artificial modification of body schema by endermatic low-frequency stimulus was undertaken in two years. Possibility of the artificial modification by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was investigated by monitoring brain activity on cortex areas using the NIRS measurement system with an experimental test mismatched between visual and somatic sense, then availability of stimulus into coracohumeral ligament and body-schema feature detection at inferior parietal lobule were confirmed.
Based on these results, an assist method to enhance a feel of the width of vehicle was presented, and its effectiveness was investigated using a lane-keeping task on driving simulator for about 80 participants. As a result, the effectiveness was significantly confirmed (one-way ANOVA, p<0.001, N=640-790)

Free Research Field

システム科学