详情

Using Augmented Reality to Help Older Adults Make Safe Road-Crossing Decisions

项目名称：	Using Augmented Reality to Help Older Adults Make Safe Road-Crossing Decisions
摘要：	Pedestrian injuries and deaths caused by motor vehicles are a major concern worldwide. Older adults (ages 65+) encompassed 20% of all pedestrian fatalities in 2017. Assistive technology offers a potential means of improving road safety for older pedestrians. One type of assistive technology is the use of smartphone apps to convey information to pedestrians about when it is safe or unsafe to cross a road (vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication). However, this work has also shown that it is difficult to unambiguously convey prohibitive warnings that indicate when it is not safe to cross. In the study with older pedestrians, for example, participants sometimes had difficulty matching the auditory warning to the correct visual gap. As a result, they relied on their judgment rather than the prohibitive warnings. Another type of assistive technology is the use of augmented reality (AR) displays to convey relevant traffic information to pedestrians. AR displays can overlay graphics on the roadway to visually indicate which gaps between vehicles are safe vs. unsafe to cross. At present, however, little is known about how AR technology can be used to convey information to assist older pedestrians. This project aims to evaluate whether AR street overlays that offer road-crossing guidance about crossable vs. uncrossable gaps will help older adults make safer crossing decisions. Participants will perform a road-crossing task in an immersive pedestrian simulator in which they repeatedly cross a continuous stream of traffic comprised of crossable and uncrossable gaps. AR technology will be implemented by placing visual overlays directly onto the virtual environment that inform pedestrians about whether a gap is safe or unsafe to cross. Such overlays could be displayed by AR glasses in the real world. The research team expects that older pedestrians will comply with both the permissive and prohibitive overlays and will report that both are equally informative, in contrast to prior work on V2P communication.
状态：	Active
资金：	80000
资助组织：	Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
执行机构：	University of Iowa
开始时间：	20200824
预计完成日期：	20220123
主题领域：	Data and Information Technology；Highways；Pedestrians and Bicyclists；Safety and Human Factors