Projects

Created by William Loughborough in 1979, Talking Lights was a system of infrared transmitters and receivers allowing blind and visually impaired travelers to quickly and easily "read signs" at a distance.

The goal of the "Empowering Data Vision: A Data Science Course for Blind Individuals" 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 July 15, 2023 using the link below.

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

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.

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.

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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.