James Coughlan

Senior Scientist

Director: Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center

Ph.D.

The goal of our laboratory is to develop and test assistive technology for blind and visually impaired persons that is enabled by computer vision and other sensor technologies.

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Coughlan Lab
Contact Information:

Email: coughlan@ski.org

Office Phone: (415) 345-2146


2318 Fillmore Street

San Francisco, CA 94115

Links:
Link to Google Scholar

Publications

Schematic showing a graph with shaded areas around modes and edges indicating possible navigation areas. The current intermediate target is a node enclosed in a circle.

S. Mascetti, Dr. Ahmetovic, G. Galimberti and J. Coughlan. “NavGraph: Enhancing Blind Travelers’ Navigation Experience and Safety.” Proc. ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), Volume 9, Issue 3, Article No.: 117, Pages 1 – 27. 2025.

Biggs, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Walker, B. (2025). Systematically Evaluating Digital Map Tools Based on the WCAG. Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 13.

Manzoni, M. ., Mascetti, S. ., Ahmetovic, D. ., Crabb, R. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2025). MapIO: a Gestural and Conversational Interface for Tactile Maps. IEEE Access.

Biggs, B. ., Agbaroji, H. ., Toth, C. ., Stockman, T. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Walker, B. . (2024). Co-Designing Auditory Navigation Solutions for Traveling as a Blind Individual During The COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 14(1). (Original work published 2024)

Crabb, R. ., Cheraghi, S. A., & Coughlan, J. . (2023). A Lightweight Approach to Localization for Blind and Visually Impaired Travelers. Sensors, 23(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052701 (Original work published 2023)

Pitcher-Cooper, C. ., Seth, M. ., Kao, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Yoon, I. . (2023). You Described, We Archived: A Rich Audio Description Dataset. Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 11. (Original work published 2023)

Hong, J. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2023). VR Training to Facilitate Blind Photography for Navigation. Journal On Technology And Persons With Disabilities. (Original work published 2023)

Biggs, B. ., Pitcher-Cooper, C. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2022). Getting in Touch with Tactile Map Automated Production: Evaluating Impact and Areas for Improvement.Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 10. (Original work published 2022)

Tekin, E. ., Vásquez, D. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2013). S-K Smartphone Barcode Reader for the Blind. Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 1.

Tekin, E. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Simon, H. J. (2013). Improving speech enhancement algorithms by incorporating visual information. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134, 4237–4237.

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2013). Crosswatch: a system for providing guidance to visually impaired travelers at traffic intersections. Journal of Assistive Technologies, 7.

Manduchi, R. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2012). (Computer) vision without sight. Communications of the ACM, 55, 96–104.

Hand pointing to the wing of an airplane shown in a tactile graphic. The hand skeleton detected by computer vision is shown in green.

Ahmetovic, D., Coughlan, J., Dal Santo, G., Ezrouri, K., Manzoni, M., & Mascetti, S. (2025). CamIO in the Browser: A Cross-Platform Audio Label Tool for Tactile Graphics.

Hong, J. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2024). Enhancing Walk-Light Detector Usage for the Visually Impaired: A Comparison of VR Exploration and Verbal Instructions. Web4All 2024. Presented at the Web4All 2024. Singapore. (Original work published 2024)

Biggs, B. ., Toth, C. ., Stockman, T. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Walker, B. N. (2022). Evaluation of a Non-Visual Auditory Choropleth and Travel Map Viewer. International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) 2022. Presented at the International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) 2022. Virtual. Retrieved from PMCID: PMC10010675 (Original work published 2022)

Coughlan, J. ., Biggs, B. ., & Shen, H. . (2021). Point and Listen: Bringing a 3D Map to Life with Audio-Based AR. 6th Annual Frameless XR Symposium. Presented at the 6th Annual Frameless XR Symposium. (Original work published 2021)

Biggs, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Coppin, P. . (2021). Design and evaluation of an interactive 3D map. RESNA 2021 Conference. Presented at the RESNA 2021 Conference. (Original work published 2021)

Fusco, G. ., Cheraghi, S. A., Neat, L. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2020). An Indoor Navigation App using Computer Vision and Sign Recognition. 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs. Presented at the 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. (Original work published 2020)

Coughlan, J. ., Biggs, B. ., Rivière, M.-A. ., & Shen, H. . (2020). An Audio-Based 3D Spatial Guidance AR System for Blind Users. 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs. Presented at the 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. (Original work published 2020)

Biggs, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Coppin, P. . (2019). Design and Evaluation of an Audio Game-Inspired Auditory Map Interface. The 25th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2019). Presented at the The 25th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2019). Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. (Original work published 2019)

Fusco, G. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2018). Indoor Localization using Computer Vision and Visual-Inertial Odometry. International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs (ICCHP ’18). Presented at the International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP ’18). Linz, Austria. (Original work published 2018)

Fusco, G. ., Tekin, E. ., Ladner, R. E., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). Using Computer Vision to Access Appliance Displays. ASSETS. Presented at the ASSETS. (Original work published 2014)

Manduchi, R. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). The last meter: blind visual guidance to a target. Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 3113–3122. ACM.

Fusco, G. ., Shen, H. ., Murali, V. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). Determining a Blind Pedestrian’s Location and Orientation at Traffic Intersections. Computers Helping People With Special Needs, 427–432. Springer International Publishing.

Zaman, N., Potluri, V., Biggs, B., & Coughlan, M. J. (2025). WhatsAI: Transforming Meta Ray-Bans into an Extensible Generative AI Platform for Accessibility. arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.09823.

Fusco, G. ., Tekin, E. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2016). Sign Finder Application – Technical Report.

Coughlan, J. ., & Manduchi, R. . (2013). Camera-based access to visual information. In Assistive technology for blindness and low vision (pp. 219–246).

Tekin, E. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2012). BLaDE: Barcode localization and decoding engine.

Coughlan, J. . (2012). Markov random fields and techniques for performing inference with them.

Shen, H. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2012). Towards a real-time system for finding and reading signs for visually impaired users. In Computers Helping People with Special Needs (pp. 41–47). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. (Original work published 2012)

Coughlan, J. . (2011). Mechanisms for propagating surface information in 3-D reconstruction. In C. W. Tyler (Ed.), Computer Vision: From Surfaces to 3D Objects. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press.

Tekin, E. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2010). A mobile phone application enabling visually impaired users to find and read product barcodes. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Coughlan, J. . (2010). Maximum Entropy Distributions and Their Relationship to Maximum Likelihood.

Coughlan, J. . (2009). Basic 3D Geometry for One and Two Cameras.

Coughlan, J. . (2009). A Tutorial Introduction to Belief Propagation.

Ivanchenko, V. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2008). Crosswatch: a camera phone system for orienting visually impaired pedestrians at traffic intersections. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Projects

Labs

  • Coughlan Lab
    Coughlan Lab
    Principal Investigator:
    The goal of our laboratory is to develop and test assistive technology for blind and visually impaired persons that is enabled by computer vision and other sensor technologies.
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Centers

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Trainees