XR-assisted head-up displays for advanced perception
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Date
2026-07-06
Authors
Χαραλαμπόπουλος, Δημήτριος
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Abstract
Road safety depends heavily on the driver, since most fatal crashes are attributed to human error and, frequently, to the failure to perceive a hazard in time. This thesis investigates the implementation of XR-assisted head-up displays, which aim to enhance the driver's perception of safety-relevant information. To this end, a custom virtual-reality driving simulation system is implemented and used to explore potential methods of visualizing warnings to assist the driver.
The simulator was developed in the Unity engine for the HTC Vive Pro Eye headset and comprises autonomous traffic and pedestrians, a risk-assessment system that grades the threat posed by each hazard, and three interchangeable displays: a head-down central panel, an augmented-reality head-up display that highlights hazards in the driver's line of sight, and an augmented-reality head-up display that additionally reveals hazards occluded from the driver's vision. These displays visualize static and dynamic hazards differently, including construction zones, a parked car, a vehicle swerving into the driver's path, and a pedestrian darting across the road.
Eighteen participants drove under each display in different weather conditions and assessed them through a questionnaire — covering presence, simulator sickness, acceptance, workload, trust, and awareness of occluded hazards — together with a comparative ranking of the three. The head-up displays were consistently preferred over the head-down panel, and the ability to reveal occluded hazards improved the driver's awareness of threats not yet visible, without increasing workload; it also drew the greatest trust, however, raising a note of caution regarding over-reliance. The work contributes both a reusable simulation platform and an evaluation of three methods of presenting information to the driver.
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Keywords
Augmented reality (AR), Head-up displays, Driving simulators, Advanced driver assistance systems, Situation awareness, Occluded hazards, Virtual reality