Head tracking based glance area estimation for driver behaviour modelling during lane change execution

This paper describes a method to analyse driver behaviour before lane change manoeuvres to detect the lane change intent before the actual manoeuvre itself is initiated. Recent research shows that driver´s visual behaviour is an essential indicator to estimate intent to change lane. To create stochastic models for this process, it is necessary to detect which areas are frequently taken into focus by the driver (like looking towards the front window and side mirrors, for example). In a laboratory setting these regions could directly be measured using eye tracking methods. When focusing on solutions which can be integrated into cars under realistic settings, common eye tracking methods fail. More stable solutions are head tracking systems, mostly based on mono or stereo cameras. In this article an approach is presented for estimating the drivers glance areas from head tracking data.