This book is based on the proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Vision in Vehicles. The aim of the conference series is to enable international researchers from different disciplines to meet and exchange ideas on the current state-of-the-art of all aspects related to vehicles and vehicle controllers. This is perceived as encompassing the internal and external design of a vehicle, the environment in which vehicles move, as well as the visual, perceptual and cognitive limitations of the vehicle controller. All types of vehicles (including underground mining vehicles, helicopters, trains and motorcycles) are considered, though the majority of papers deal with automobiles and their drivers.

The conference keynote address Automated Highways: A Vision of the Future, which was presented by John Bloomfield, set the tone for the meeting. The proceedings, as contained in this volume, begin in a similar vein with chapters considering Simulation Studies of Driver Performance, followed by a section on Visual Processing and Collision Avoidance. Cognitive issues are addressed in several chapters detailing recent work on Cognitive Aspects of Visual Information Processing.

The growing use of information technology is covered in two subsequent sections concerning firstly, the Visual Requirements of In-Vehicle Guidance Systems and secondly, Driver Support Systems. Environmental factors are discussed in a separate section, as is driver's own visual impairment. The final section concerns Arousal and Performance and discusses alcohol effects on driving ability.

Vision in Vehicles V, with contributions by experts from a diverse range of disciplines, including optometrists, psychologists, physiologists, human factors specialists and engineers, will undoubtedly stimulate the progression of research in this area.

This volume contains contributions illuminating much of the current research occurring in the area of visual perception. It encompasses all aspects of vision and its relationship to vehicle design, including both the internal and external design of the vehicle as well as the perceptual and cognitive limitations of the vehicle controller.

Issues specifically related to the vision of the driver are initially addressed and the problems of vehicle glazing and light transmission are considered. The major topics of visual perception and vehicle control are covered in three related chapters encompassing: collision avoidance, vehicle signalling systems and the acquisition of visual information. Moving on to the external environment and its relationship to vision, traffic signs are discussed. Approaches to the measurement and modelling of driver behaviour are dealt with and the area of telerobotic control of vehicles is considered. In-vehicle displays are covered in two related chapters addressing issues of visual workload and effects of display type.

It is hoped that the book, contributed to by experts from a diverse range of disciplines, including optometrists, psychologists, physiologists, human factors specialists and engineers, will stimulate the progression of research in this area, as effectively as the preceding volumes did.

This book is a new interdisciplinary work which presents the proceedings of the third international conference on Vision in Vehicles, the aim of which was to provide an international forum for the exchange of information on current work on all aspects of vision and its relationship to vehicle design. This includes both the internal and external design of the vehicle and its environmental displays, as well as the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of the vehicle controllers.

Starting with Volume 30, 1965, Structure Reports is produced in a new format by photo-offset printing from typed manuscript with unjustified lines. At the time when the decision for this change was taken, the cost of setting the manuscript in type was becoming so high as to render the cost of individual subscription pro hibitive. At that time automatic typing methods giving justified lines, etc. for photo-offset reproduction did not offer any saving over type setting, but hand typing of the manuscripts could give a considerable saving in production costs. In the belief that a publication that is too expensive to buy is of little value, the format has been changed sacrificing elegance to availability. The new format does not lead to increased length of the volumes since the information content of the typed and typeset pages is practically identical. How ever, the amount of work to be reported demands the eventual separation of Structure Reports into two volumes, A. Metals and Inorganic and B. Organic. It was convenient to introduce this change also at Volume 30, and with Volume 31 further to restrict the publication of crystal data, so that from 1966 onwards the reports deal almost entirely with complete structure determinations only. In the past the aim of Structure Reports has been to present critical reports on all work of crystallographic structural interest, whether it is derived directly from X-ray, electron or neutron diffraction, or even indirectly from other experiments."

The Seventh International Conference series on Vision in Vehicles was held in Marseilles in September 1997. This event was run in conjunction with the Applied Vision Association, the Ergonomics Society and with the participation of INRETS (Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Securite).
This volume presents the selected and edited proceedings. The papers at the conference were ordered into sessions, from driver-specific aspects to interfacing with the new in-vehicle systems. These sessions are mirrored in the ordering of the chapters. The conference is long established and regularly draws representatives from the key international research centres working in this popular and diverse transportation area.

The original concept for the Vision in Vehicle series of international conferences was born from discussions within the Applied Vision Association which led eventually to the first conference being held in 1985. Ten years of progress later and this volume presents the selected and edited proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Vision in Vehicles (VIV6) which was held at the University of Derby, 13-16 September 1995. The meeting was organised in association with the Applied Vision Association and the Ergonomics Society.
The conference is unique in the eclectic mix of disciplines which are attracted to the meetings and this enables research inssues to be considered in very broad contexts.