Richard R. Corey – VEMI Lab

Augmented Information in the Driving Environment: Increasing Pedestrian Safety with Augmented Reality Indicators for Older Adult Drivers in Maine

ederosby — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 14:42:36 +0000

This report describes the project activities conducted at 91��’s VEMI Lab to address the increasing rate of vehicle-pedestrian collisions within the state of Maine and to improve older adult driving safety. Leveraging VEMI’s experience with virtual reality environments, human-subject research, and the lab’s fully immersive autonomous vehicle simulator, a proof-of-concept, computer vision-assisted augmented reality (CVAR) system was designed and tested by Maine drivers aged 65 and older. This system displays an augmented reality (AR) visual indicator (i.e., CVAR icon) on the simulated vehicle’s windshield whenever a pedestrian is detected in or around the roadway. The goal of this AR icon is to capture the driver’s attention and direct it toward the pedestrian, increasing situational awareness, expediting driving reactions, and helping prevent potentially fatal collisions.

Citation:

Brown, J.R., Fink, P.D.S., Movalia, R.M., Kastelein, M.E., James, K.J., Corey, R.R., & Giudice, N.A. (2025). Augmented information in the driving environment: Increasing pedestrian safety with augmented reality indicators for older adult drivers in Maine. Technical report for the Maine Department of Transportation and U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

The Autonomous Vehicle Assistant (AVA): Emerging technology design supporting blind and visually impaired travelers in autonomous transportation

aforbes — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:12:09 +0000

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inclusive Design Challenge spurred innovative research promoting accessible technology for people with disabilities in the future of autonomous transportation. This paper presents the user-driven design of the Autonomous Vehicle Assistant (AVA), a winning project of the challenge focused on solutions for people who are blind and visually impaired. Results from an initial survey (n = 90) and series of user interviews (n = 12) informed AVA’s novel feature set, which was evaluated through a formal navigation study (n = 10) and participatory design evaluations (n = 6). Aggregate findings suggest that AVA’s sensor fusion approach combining computer vision, last-meter assistance, and multisensory alerts provide critical solutions for users poised to benefit most from this emerging transportation technology.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicles, People with visual impairment, Accessibility

Citation: Paul D.S. Fink, Stacy A. Doore, Xue Lin, Matthew Maring, Pu Zhao, Aubree Nygaard, Grant Beals, Richard R. Corey, Raymond J. Perry, Katherine Freund, Velin Dimitrov, Nicholas A. Giudice, The Autonomous Vehicle Assistant (AVA): Emerging technology design supporting blind and visually impaired travelers in autonomous transportation,
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 179, 2023, 103125, ISSN 1071-5819, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103125

Autonomous is Not Enough: Designing Multisensory Mid-Air Gestures for Vehicle Interactions Among People with Visual Impairments

aforbes — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 18:55:01 +0000

Should fully autonomous vehicles (FAVs) be designed inclusively and accessibly, independence will be transformed for millions of people experiencing transportation-limiting disabilities worldwide. Although FAVs hold promise to improve efficient transportation without intervention, a truly accessible experience must enable user input, for all people, in many driving scenarios (e.g., to alter a route or pull over during an emergency). Therefore, this paper explores desires for control in FAVs among (n=23) people who are blind and visually impaired. Results indicate strong support for control across a battery of driving tasks, as well as the need for multimodal information. These findings inspired the design and evaluation of a novel multisensory interface leveraging mid-air gestures, audio, and haptics. All participants successfully navigated driving scenarios using our gestural-audio interface, reporting high ease-of-use. Contributions include the first inclusively designed gesture set for FAV control and insight regarding supplemental haptic and audio cues.

Keywords: Spatial audio, Accessible design, Gestures, Autonomous vehicles, Interfaces for blind or visually impaired individuals, Situational awareness

Citation: Paul D. S. Fink, Velin Dimitrov, Hiroshi Yasuda, Tifany L. Chen, Richard R. Corey, Nicholas A. Giudice, and Emily S. Sumner. 2023. Autonomous is Not Enough: Designing Multisensory Mid-Air Gestures for Vehicle Interactions Among People with Visual Impairments . In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23– 28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 13 pages. https: //doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580762 International, USA. DOI: http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1003586

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