Analyzing construction workers’ recognition of hazards by estimating visual focus of attention

High injury and fatality rates remain a serious problem in the construction industry. Many construction injuries and fatalities can be prevented if workers can recognize potential hazards and take actions in time. Many efforts have been devoted in improving workers’ ability of hazard recognition through various safety training and education methods. However, a reliable approach for evaluating this ability is missing. Previous studies in the field of human behavior and phycology indicate that the visual focus of attention (VFOA) is a good indicator of worker’s actual focus. Towards this direction, this study introduces an automated approach for estimating the VFOA of equipment operators using a head orientation-based VFOA estimation method. The proposed method is validated in a virtual reality scenario using an immersive head mounted display. Results show that the proposed method can effectively estimate the VFOA of test subjects in different test scenarios. The findings in this study broaden the knowledge of detecting the visual focus and distraction of construction workers, and envision the future work in improving work’s ability of hazard recognition.