Projects

  • Active

    Vergence and Stereopsis

    Vergence to disparity targets in the central visual field is impaired in individuals with amblyopia and strabismus.

  • Active
    STEM figure showing icons representing science, technology, engineering and math

    Summer Research Institute

    The goal of the Summer Research Institute program is to help people with visual impairments acquire advanced skills related to STEM subjects and careers. Apply to participate in the inaugural session by May 1, 2023 using the link below.

  • Active
    schematic of an eyeball with pupil labeled and arrow indicating direction of gaze

    Challenges in Head-Free Eye Tracking in Health & Disease

    This project is focused on investigating sources of error and potential improvement methodologies for head-free eye tracking, particularly in individuals with known oculomotor deficits

  • Active
    Photo of Magic Map, a bronze scale map of the Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto. The bronze map is bordered by panels on both sides with descriptions of the map.

    Magic Map

    The Magic Map is an interactive 3D map installed at the Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto, California. It consists of a 1/100 scale 3D bronze representation of the playground, which includes over seventy play structures organized into multiple play zones and paths. When the tip of the "Magic Wand" tethered to the map is pointed to a specific feature on the map, the name and description of the feature are read aloud in audio. This interactivity makes the map accessible to visitors with visual impairments, and without requiring them to read braille.

  • Active
    Cartoon of falling apple

    Vestibular Function in AMD: Verticality Perception

    To accurately perceive one’s own state and that of the surrounding environment, visual, vestibular and somatosensory inputs must be appropriately weighted and dynamically reweighted depending on the environment and task difficulty, as well as signal reliability (and availability). Aging is associated with an increase on visual dependence (a greater weighting of visual information). In this project we investigate how loss of visual information due to AMD affects this reweighting process and if an increase in visual dependence may be maladaptive in AMD.

  • Active
    drawing of an ear with sound waves coming towards it

    Effects of Noise Exposure Across the Lifespan on Balance and Stability in Older Adults

    Falls in older adults are common, have high societal and monetary costs, often lead to injury and can even be fatal. It is known that noise can damage the vestibular periphery resulting in postural instability and compromised balance. This project investigates how natural aging is accelerated by lifetime noise exposure, and how that can lead to impaired vestibular function, contributing to propensity to fall.

  • Active
    pencil drawing of the robot design

    Robotic Oculomotor Simulator

    Current eye tracking and calibration algorithms do not accommodate eccentric viewing and the capacity for accurate eye tracking is difficult to assess in individuals with central visual field loss, and few studies of naturalistic oculomotor behavior exist. To address this problem, we are developing a binocular robotic model of the human eyes that can simulate fixation and eye movements with an eccentric preferred retinal locus in one or both eyes and allow for precise assessment of eye tracking performance of head mounted computer vision-based eye tracking systems.

  • Active
    Model of smooth pursuit

    Modeling Smooth Pursuit Eye-Movement Deficits in Macular Degeneration

    The project investigates the deficits in smooth pursuit in individuals with age-related macular degeneration within the framework of a Bayesian model.

  • Active
    Headphone surrounding an image of the earth.

    Hearing the World: A Remote Study of Auditory Perception

    We aim to investigate the nature of auditory perception and how the brain learns rules for interpreting sounds.

Pages