Search results for "Human Factors"
showing 10 items of 795 documents
Enabling independent navigation for visually impaired people through a wearable vision-based feedback system
2017
This work introduces a wearable system to provide situational awareness for blind and visually impaired people. The system includes a camera, an embedded computer and a haptic device to provide feedback when an obstacle is detected. The system uses techniques from computer vision and motion planning to (1) identify walkable space; (2) plan step-by-step a safe motion trajectory in the space, and (3) recognize and locate certain types of objects, for example the location of an empty chair. These descriptions are communicated to the person wearing the device through vibrations. We present results from user studies with low- and high-level tasks, including walking through a maze without collisi…
Serious games as a virtual training ground for relocation to a new healthcare facility
2016
Purpose This paper aims to enquire into how building information modelling (BIM) and gaming can be integrated to support professionals in their learning about the spatial layout of a new building. This knowledge is important to prepare building operation and facilities management (FM). Design/methodology/approach Ingrained in task–technology fit theory, this paper reports from a case study of a serious game staged in the graphical environment of a building information model. A series of interviews with the client, subject-matter experts and software developers involved in developing the game were conducted. The industrial setting for the study is a major hospital construction project in No…
Visual scale factor for speed perception
2011
Speed perception is an important task depending mainly on optic flow that the driver must perform continuously to control his/her vehicle. Unfortunately, it appears that in some driving simulators speed perception is under estimated, leading into speed production higher than in real conditions. Perceptual validity is then not good enough to study driver’s behavior. To solve this problem, a technique has recently seen the light, which consists of modifying the geometric field of view (GFOV) while keeping the real field of view (FOV) constant. We define our visual scale factor as the ratio between the GFOV and the FOV. The present study has been carried out on the SAAM dynamic driving simulat…
Leveraging BIM and Big Data to deliver well maintained highways
2017
The Highway infrastructure is one of the most valuable assets for any state or national Government. Efficient operations of Highways lead to success of national and local economies as well as improve the quality of life of the general public dependent on it. In order to ensure aging road networks continues to move with its ever increasing number of users, requires maintenance and improvements to the road network at the highest standard. Increasing scrutiny over the cost of maintenance along with increasing pressure from Government and the public for transparency over road network spending, has made a strong case for more efficient management of the Highway road asset and traffic management…
Profiling Safety Behaviors: Exploration of the Sociocognitive Variables that Best Discriminate Between Different Behavioral Patterns
2012
This study combines contributions from both safety climate literature and prominent social influence theories. It was developed to identify the combination of sociocognitive variables that differentiate between different profiles of safety behaviors. This empirical approach has hardly been explored in the literature on behavioral aspects related to safety. The research setting for this study was a transportation company (N= 356). The results of discriminant analysis showed that different combinations of dispositional and situational influences may lead to diverse profiles of compliance and proactive safety behaviors. Perceived behavioral control was revealed to be the variable that best dif…
Safety climate responses and the perceived risk of accidents in the construction industry
2008
The usefulness of safety climate as a diagnostic tool ought to reside in its ability to identify detailed and precise difficulties that can be considered critical to improving safety. This feature depends on the theoretical analysis of the agents and issues that should be included in safety climate statements. Safety climate can be analysed from the point of view of the agent that performs the safety response in question, by identifying four main safety agents (organization, supervisors, co-workers and worker) and five safety climate variables: the Organizational Safety Response (OSR), the Supervisors' Safety Response (SSR), the Co-Workers' Safety Response (CSR), the Worker Safety Response …
Why do older drivers reduce driving? Findings from three European countries
2003
The objective of this study was to find out the reasons, which lead drivers to reduce their driving in varying cultural settings. Data on the prevalence of reduced driving, the reasons for and factors associated with reduced driving were obtained from Finnish, German and Italian home-dwelling active drivers (n=710) aged 55 and older. The subjects were interviewed in autumn 1995 at their homes with a standardized questionnaire as a part of the European project Keeping the Elderly Mobile: Technology to Meet Their Outdoor Mobility Needs. In the Finnish and German samples 62% and in the Italian sample 44% of the active drivers stated that they had reduced their driving. These persons drove fewe…
Occupational emerging risks affecting international virtual project Team Results
2017
The expansion of internet access, high-speed connection services, collaborative work platforms and tools, allowed employees to interact virtually offering companies the possibility to develop projects around the world, reducing operational costs and gain competitive advantage. Realizing the advantages and disadvantages of developing a project team in an international virtual work environment, requires adopting specific strategies to construct an effective team and ensure the project success. One of the most important disadvantages that we identified is that the new work environment brings new risks for both team members and managers. So, it becomes mandatory to identify and analyze the occu…
Beyond MAYA for game-changing multisensory design
2017
With information technology becoming ever more embedded in our surrounding everyday things, the nature of interactions and the way we experience digitalization is becoming increasingly embodied. Thus, growing effort is placed on examining the multisensory nature of interaction experience. From a design perspective, increased knowledge of how people experience materials and how to design to encourage varying material experiences opens new opportunities for the generation of rich multisensory user experience, and accomplishing game-changing results. In particular, the innovation space opened up by understanding people's material expectations of designs is significant. An experiment (N = 78) w…
Using human-values as a guide for understanding worthy design directions in augmented reality
2016
Augmented reality is a fast developing field, which will no doubt gain strong footing in the area of social media in the near future. Recently, Google Glass placed AR towards the top of the technological hype curve in regards to interaction possibilities, information overlay, information search and recording. Questions still remain however, regarding the added-value that AR offers to already existing interaction modes and technologies. In this study four concepts were designed and tested via video scenarios. The concepts related to three main product categories: educational tools; information presentation; and x-ray vision. The results positively reflected on the application of AR for educa…