Driving into the future: A scoping review of smartwatch use for real-time driver monitoring

Abstract

The use of smartwatches has increased significantly in recent years for leisure, health, and research purposes. In the transport sector, smartwatches facilitate cost-effective, unintrusive, and dynamic monitoring of the driver’s state and behavior while on the road. This scoping review aimed to analyze and synthesize publications that have collected smartwatch data during driving to examine the driver’s condition, behavior, in-cabin activities, and reactions. The main objective was to assess the extent to which smartwatches have been included in driving-related studies, organize the relevant literature thematically, and identify the issues that arise during the collection and analysis of smartwatch data.A scoping review was conducted and 76 eligible records were identified based on the framework provided by Arksey and O’Malley. The publications differed significantly in terms of their main purposes, number of recruited participants, smartwatches used, and methodologies applied. Five main themes were identified in the relevant literature: driver state assessment, benchmark performance, driver assistance systems and interventions, exogenous and endogenous factors, and detection of driving events. The review confirms the potential of smartwatches as a tool for driver monitoring, which goes beyond the capabilities of questionnaires. Some studies reported data-related problems, mainly related to data loss and sweating. Future research should adopt a more comprehensive approach to driver monitoring by expanding the collection of data beyond the narrow context of the driving task to include measurements related to the long-term health of the driver, such as sleep, resting heart rate, and physical activity.

Keywords

• Wrist-wearable device
• Human factor
• Driver monitoring
• Driver behavior
• Physiological measurements
• Fitness to drive