VR for Police Training

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Active Shooter Simulation

Develop several fully immersive 3D VR active shooter scenarios that can run on cost-effective commercially available VR hardware.

Final Report for OCJS Project

Develop and Assess Active Shooter Virtual Reality Training for Ohio Law Enforcement.  PI: J.C Barnes. Co-PI: Tang Office of Criminal Justice Services. $50,000. 09. 2020-09.2021 ( $29,608)

Development of a Virtual Reality Augmented Violence Reduction Training System for Active and Mass Shooting incidents. PI: Ed Latessa. Co-PIs: J.C. Barnes, Ming Tang, Cory Haberman, Dan Gerard, Tim Sabransky. $10,000. Start-up fund. UC Digital Futures anchor tenant cohort.

Shimmer GSR sensor is used to test Physiological stress. 

Checklist

Using Checklists and Virtual Reality to Improve Police Investigations. Collaborative Research Advancement Grants. UC. $25,000. PI: Haberman. Co-PI: Tang, Barnes. Period: 07.2020-01.2022.

Team:

Ming Tang, Cory Haberman, J.C. Barnes, Cheryl Jonson, Dongrui Zhu, Heejin Lee, Jillian Desmond, Ruby Qiu, Snigdha Bhattiprolu, Rishyak Kommineni

Publications:

Cory P. Haberman, Ming Tang, JC Barnes, Clay Driscoll, Bradley J. O’Guinn, Calvin Proffit,. Using Virtual Reality Simulations to Study Initial Burglary Investigations. American Society of Evidence-Based Policing’s 2023 Conference. 2023. Las Vegas. Nevada.

Design Process

To create simulated human behavior, either during the active shooting, or the casual human dialogue, the team designed a A.I system to simulate the decision trees. Please watch the technique breakdown demo.

Safety Vests

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Grant: Assess the effectiveness of Type 2 and Type 3 safety vests for day and night use-Phase. Ohio Department of Transportation. PI: John Ash. Co-PI: Ming Tang. Julian Wang. $337,366.31. ($191,458.16 in FY2020  and  $145,908.15  in  FY2021) Period: 02.2020-02.2022. 

Ming Tang leads the modeling team constructed the virtual reality driving simulation, and conducted eye-tracking data collection to measure driver’s perception on the construction zone and various vest, signage and vehicles.

Work zones are an essential component of any state transportation agency’s construction and maintenance operations. As such, agencies apply numerous practices to keep their workers safe during construction operations. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently invested in several more advanced items to improve worker safety (and traveler safety, by hopefully reducing the number of crashes overall). Specifically, ODOT invested in Type 2 and 3 safety vests, halo lights, and reflectors on the back of dump trucks. In 2020, a team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) worked with the Ohio Department of Transportation to assess the effectiveness of safety vests for day and night use.

The simulation-based evaluation used measurements to create realistic retroreflective vests, lights, and other safety equipment in virtual scenarios. These items were then placed in different virtual work zone environments, each of which had different work zone setup conditions, traffic control, vests worn by workers, time of day/ambient lighting, etc. Through an eye-tracking experiment measuring participants’ gaze on workers in different virtual work zone scenarios and a driving simulator experiment in which participants drove through virtual work zones and were asked follow-up questions on worker conspicuity, subjective and objective measures of worker visibility were obtained.

Use Virtual Reality and Eye-tracking to evaluate the safety of vest on the highway construction site.

To access copies of the final report, visit:  https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/programs/research-program/research-projects/02-research-projects  

This research was sponsored by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

Rural Mobile Living

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Image credit: Student award. 2020 DAAPworks Director’s DAAPcares award. Portable Disaster Relief. Students: Noah Nicolette, Jamie Waugaman, Travis Rebsch. 2020

ARCH 4002. Spring 2020
SAID DAAP, University of Cincinnati

Using the 10 miles rural area along I-90 at Lorain County, Ohio as the site, this Rural Mobile Living studio presents a study investigating the rural mobility with an emphasis on architecture as infrastructure and its connection to the means of transportation. Work closely with the Vehicle Design Studio in the School of Design, the research intended to realize the potential of the self-driving car, smart technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning into the architectural design process and address problems such as poverty, lack of transportation means and under-developed infrastructure. Ultimately, the studio looks to build upon the strengths of both vehicle design and architecture methods and explore the possible design solutions for the following five scenarios in the rural areas: “shared living, working homeless, digital nomad, disaster relief, and tourism recreation.

Faculty: Ming Tang
Students: Nick Chism, Maddie Cooke, Amy Cui, Noah Nicolette, Travis Rebsch, Vu Tran Huy Phi, Kristian Van Wiel, David Wade, Jamie Waugaman, Adam Baca. SAID, DAAP.

Award:

Student award. 2020 DAAPworks Director’s DAAPcares award. Portable Disaster Relief. Students: Noah Nicolette, Jamie Waugaman, Travis Rebsch. 2020

Collaborator: Vehicle Design studio. Juan Antonio Islas Munoz, School of Design, DAAP.

Acknowledgment

Thanks for the support from Autodesk Cloud-based computing BIM360.  

Demo

  1. Download our game here. “DCM.zip” (1.2GB) password “daapworks@2020”
  2. Unzip and Run the exe file

 

How to use the interface

  • use M to turn on/off Menu
  • use A W S D or Arrow key to move/drive
  • use C to switch the camera between the first person to the third person
  • use space bar to stop a car
  • use E to get in/out of a car
  • use F to turn on/off flying mode. Then use Q, Z to fly up and down. ( only as a host server or single-player mode)
  • walk into the “glowing green box” to teleport

For Multi-player game

A. Set up Steam on your computer

  1. Set up a Steam account and install Steam in your computer.
  2. Run the Steam program on your computer.
  3. Add Ming Tang as your friend. Friend code “301687106”

B. Join a multiplayer session.

  1. Make sure you use “Internet”, not “Lan”. Single-click the found session, not double click.
  2. You should be able to use “Shift + Tab” to turn on the Steam overlay. Ask questions in the Steam chat room.
  3. Choose the “Find games” option. Once you find an open session, double click the name to join the game.

article in IJSW journal

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Ming Tang’s paper. Analysis of Signage using Eye-Tracking Technology is published at the  Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding. 02. 2020.

Abstract

Signs, in all their forms and manifestations, provide visual communication for wayfinding, commerce, and public dialogue and expression. Yet, how effectively a sign communicates and ultimately elicits a desired reaction begins with how well it attracts the visual attention of prospective viewers. This is especially the case for complex visual environments, both outside and inside of buildings. This paper presents the results of an exploratory research design to assess the use of eye-tracking (ET) technology to explore how placement and context affect the capture of visual attention. Specifically, this research explores the use of ET hardware and software in real-world contexts to analyze how visual attention is impacted by location and proximity to geometric edges, as well as elements of contrast, intensity against context, and facial features. Researchers also used data visualization and interpretation tools in augmented reality environments to anticipate human responses to alternative placement and design. Results show that ET methods, supported by the screen-based and wearable eye-tracking technologies, can provide results that are consistent with previous research of signage performance using static images in terms of cognitive load and legibility, and ET technologies offer an advanced dynamic tool for the design and placement of signage.

Issue

Vol 4 No 1 (2020): Roads, Interiors, Graphics, and Research Technology  
Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research project is supported by the Strategic Collaborative/Interdisciplinary Award of the University of Cincinnati. Thanks to the support from Professor Christopher Auffrey, students from ARCH7014, Fall 2019 semester, ARCH8001 Spring 2019 semester, and ARCH4001, Fall 2018 semester at the University of Cincinnati.

For more information on the wearable ET, screen-based ET, and VR-ET, please check out our research website, or contact Prof. Tang.

 

Digital Twin of Ohio Highway. Training Simulation for snowplow

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Ming Tang led the team that constructed six large-scale Ohio highway digital twins for snowplow drivers. The road models, which are 70 miles long and span three Ohio counties, were based on real-site GIS and TOPO data.

“Evaluate Opportunities to Provide Training Simulation for ODOT Snow and Ice Drivers”. Phase 2. Ohio Department of Transportation. PI: John Ash. Co-PI: Ming Tang, Frank Zhou, Mehdi Norouzi, $952,938. Grant #: 1014440. ODOT 32391 / FHWA Period: 01.2019-03.2022.

“Evaluate Opportunities to Provide Training Simulation for ODOT Snow and Ice Drivers”. Phase-1. Ohio Department of Transportation. PI: Jiaqi Ma. Co-PI: Ming Tang, Julian Wang. $39,249. ODOT 32391 / FHWA. Period: 01.2018- 01.2019.

 

 

Lorain County. District 3. 

Hoicking Mountain District 10.

City of Columbus-south A

 

City of Columbus-West B

City of Columbus-North. C

 

Publications

Raman, M., Tang, M.  3D Visualization Development of Urban Environments for Simulated Driving Training and VR Development in Transportation Systems. ASCE ICTD 2023 Conference. Austin. TX. 06. 2023