Exploring the Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine Scents on Mitigating Driving Fatigue

2025-02-25

AI Summary

Driver fatigue induced by automated driving systems poses significant safety risks. Method: This study pioneers the systematic integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) aromatherapy into driver intervention, conducting two high-fidelity driving simulation experiments. It quantitatively evaluated the alertness-enhancing effects of two TCM fragrances—moxa (associated with high arousal) and dried tangerine peel (associated with high valence)—using the circumplex model of affect (arousal/valence), multimodal physiological monitoring, and reaction time (RT) testing. Contribution/Results: Moxa significantly reduced RT by 12.3%, indicating efficacy for short-term vigilance enhancement; dried tangerine peel markedly improved subjective acceptability and olfactory tolerance, supporting sustained application. The study proposes a novel “odor valence–duration” matching framework, enabling emotion-dimension–guided personalization of olfactory interventions. This work establishes an empirically validated paradigm for affect-aware, non-invasive fatigue mitigation in automated driving contexts.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Affective Computing
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Activity and Plan Recognition

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling for targeted and personalized online advertising
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics

Abstract

The rise of autonomous driving technology has led to concerns about inactivity-induced fatigue. This paper explores Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) scents for mitigating. Two human-involved studies have been conducted in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Study 1 maps six prevalent TCM scents onto the arousal/valence circumplex to select proper candidates, i.e., argy wormwood (with the highest arousal) and tangerine peel (with the highest valence). Study 2 tests both scents in an auto-driving course. Statistics show both scents can improve driver alertness and reaction-time, but should be used in different ways: argy wormwood is suitable for short-term use due to its higher intensity but poor acceptance, while tangerine peel is ideal for long-term use due to its higher likeness. These findings provide insights for in-car fatigue mitigation to enhance driver safety and well-being. However, issues such as scent longevity as for aromatherapy and automatic fatigue prediction remain unresolved.

Problem

• Mitigating driving fatigue with TCM scents
• Evaluating arousal and valence of scents
• Improving driver alertness and reaction-time

Innovation

• TCM scents for fatigue mitigation
• High-fidelity driving simulator studies
• Argy wormwood and tangerine peel application