BLIND PEDESTRIANS' ACCESS TO COMPLEX INTERSECTIONS

盲人行人进入复杂十字路口

• 批准号: 6554759
• 负责人: RICHARD G LONG
• 金额: $ 1.47万
• 依托单位: WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-07-01 至 2005-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6554759
• 关键词: bioengineering /biomedical engineering; biomedical equipment development; blind aid; blindness; clinical research; gait; human subject; quality of life; sound perception; vehicular accident; visual perception

The central aims of the proposed bioengineering research partnership (BRP) are: to use the strengths of a multi-disciplinary team to understand the perceptual and cognitive requirements of negotiating complex intersections without vision and with low vision; to design and test engineering and training solutions to problems of information access that are currently known and that are identified in the course of this partnership; and to produce materials about the problems and solutions that are useful to transportation engineers, individuals with visual impairments, and rehabilitation and clinical personnel. The BRP will focus on intersections that are complex by virtue of their size, shape, and/or signalization. The partnership will involve teams of engineers, rehabilitation professionals, and experimental psychologists from Western Michigan University (WMU), the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center (UNC-HSRC), Vanderbilt University (VU), Boston College (BC), and the Maryland School for the Blind (MSB). Pedestrian safety has been recognized as a major public health concern. For pedestrians with blindness and low vision, many of the traditional approaches to negotiating intersections are no longer effective, and this has led to increased personal risk and to the potential for decreased quality of life. It is essential that blindness researchers work collaboratively with engineers in order to find ways to address real needs and to realistically deal with the human interface requirements of access technology for persons with visual impairments. The lead institution for the partnership is Western Michigan University, and there will be collaboration across teams on most projects. The University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research team will provide transportation engineering support to the other teams of researchers and will take the lead in the dissemination activities of the partnership. The Boston College team will investigate characteristics of accessible pedestrian signals, with the goal of developing more useful signals. The Vanderbilt team will also work to develop more useful pedestrian signals and will conduct basic acoustics research about the perception of moving sound sources as this relates to street crossing. In addition, they will develop a two-speaker auditory motion display as a research and training tool. The Maryland School for the Blind team has specific expertise in low vision mobility and will conduct research concerning eye gaze strategies and mental effort during street crossings. The WMU team will investigate street crossing behavior at roundabout intersections, the effects of various detectable warning materials on nonvisual street detection and on the safety of persons with other mobility impairments, and the use of tactile cues for street-crossing alignment. WMU engineers and blind rehabilitation faculty also will also develop the "Anti-Veering Training Device" to reduce veering during street crossing.

拟议的生物工程研究合作伙伴关系（BRP）的核心目的是：利用多学科团队的优势来理解谈判没有视力和低视力的复杂交叉点的感知和认知要求；设计和测试工程和培训解决方案，以解决目前已知的信息访问问题，并在此合作伙伴关系过程中确定的问题；并生产有关问题和解决方案的材料，这些问题和解决方案对运输工程师，有视觉障碍的个人以及康复和临床人员有用。 BRP将专注于由于其大小，形状和/或信号化而复杂的交叉点。该合作伙伴关系将涉及西密歇根大学（WMU），北卡罗来纳大学公路安全研究中心（UNC-HSRC），范德比尔特大学（VU），波士顿学院（BC）和马里兰州盲人学院（MSB）的工程师，康复专业人员和实验心理学家团队。行人安全被认为是一个主要的公共卫生问题。对于有盲目和视力低下的行人来说，许多传统的谈判交叉点的方法不再有效，这导致个人风险增加并增加了生活质量的潜力。失明研究人员与工程师合作，以找到解决实际需求并实际处理视觉障碍者的访问技术的人类界面需求的方法，这一点至关重要。合作伙伴关系的主要机构是西密歇根大学，大多数项目都将在团队之间进行合作。北卡罗来纳大学的高速公路安全研究团队将为其他研究人员提供运输工程支持，并将领导合作伙伴关系的传播活动。波士顿学院团队将调查可访问的行人信号的特征，目的是开发更有用的信号。范德比尔特团队还将致力于开发更有用的行人信号，并将进行基本的声学研究，以了解与街道交叉有关的移动声音来源的感知。此外，他们还将开发两个扬声器的听觉运动显示作为研究和培训工具。马里兰州盲人小组在低视力移动方面具有特定的专业知识，并将在街道交叉期间进行有关眼目光策略和精神努力的研究。 WMU团队将在回旋处的交叉路口调查街道交叉行为，各种可检测的警告材料对非视觉街道检测的影响以及对其他行动不便的人的安全以及使用触觉提示来进行街头划线。 WMU工程师和盲人康复教师还将开发“抗烟训练装置”，以减少街道过境期间的转向。