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

TL;DR

This study investigates how Traditional Chinese Medicine scents, specifically argy wormwood and tangerine peel, can reduce driving fatigue by improving alertness and reaction times in simulated autonomous driving scenarios.

Contribution

It identifies effective TCM scents for fatigue mitigation and analyzes their suitability for short-term versus long-term use in driving contexts.

Findings

Both scents improve driver alertness and reaction time.

Argy wormwood is effective short-term but less accepted.

Tangerine peel is suitable for long-term use due to higher likability.

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.