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paper on IJSW

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Ming Tang and Adekunle Adebisi’s paper titled Using Eye-Tracking for Traffic Control Signage Design at Highway Work Zone is published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding. 

Tang, M. Adebisib, A. Using Eye-Tracking for Traffic Control Signage Design at Highway Work Zone. Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding.  Vol. 6, No. 2 (2022)

This paper discusses the application of Eye Tracking (ET) technologies for researchers to understand a driver’s perception of signage at the highway work zone. Combining ET with screen-based motion pictures and a driving simulator, the team developed an analytical method that allowed designers to evaluate signage design. Two experiments were set up to investigate how signage design might affect a driver’s visual attention and interaction under various environmental complexities and glare conditions. The study explores visual perception related to several spatial features, including signage modality, scene complexity, and color schemes. The ET method utilizes total fixation time and time-to-first fixation data to evaluate the effectiveness of signages presented through screen-based video and a driving simulator.

Keywords: Eye-tracking, Signage design, Work zone safety

about the IJSW journal

Signage and wayfinding are critical components of the urban landscape. In spite of their importance, there has been no journal or comprehensive scholarly platform dedicated to this topic. As such, scholars from a variety of academic disciplines (law, planning, engineering, business, art, economics, architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design, and graphic design) publish work in journals within their home disciplines and rarely have a chance to communicate their cross-disciplinary findings. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding seeks to bring them together.

Sponsored by the Academic Advisory Council for Signage Research and Education (AACSRE), this online, open access journal seeks to be the home for scholarship in the field of signage and wayfinding, and to make such scholarship accessible to academics and practitioners alike.

ASCE presentation

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Adebisi, A., Ash, J., Tang, M.  Poster presentation. Evaluating the Performance of Safety Vests for Identifying Road Workers at Work Zones. 2022 ASCE International Conference on Transportation & Development (ICTD 2022)  American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE. Seattle, WA. 05. 2022

Team: John Ash, Ming Tang, Adekunle Adebisi, Julian Wang, Jiaqi Ma. 

Funded by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)

 

More information on this project can be found at IRis Ignite conference,  Access Vest or ODOT research database

 

IRiS Ignite talk

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Ming Tang presented the recent research project at the annual conference hosted by the Institute for Research in Sensing (IRiS), May 25th and 26th, 2022 at UC. This event re-imagines the traditional academic conference to forge novel connections and stimulate new interdisciplinary conversations on the broad topic of sensing, including work on perception, sensor technology development, and ethical innovations in sensing research. 

Project:  Use eye-tracking to measure the effectiveness of safety vests

Team: Ming Tang, John Ash, Adekunle Adebisi, Julian Wang, Jiaqi Ma. 

Funded by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)

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.

 

 

More information on this project can be found at  Access Vest or ODOT research database

paper published in IJAEC

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Ming Tang (2021). “Visual Perception: Eye-tracking and Real-time Walkthroughs in Architectural Design.” International Journal of Architecture, Engineering and Construction, 10(1), 1-9.

Visual Perception: Eye-tracking and Real-time Walkthroughs in Architectural Design

This paper discusses the application of Eye Tracking (ET) technologies as a new way for researchers to understand a person’s perception of a build environment regarding wayfinding and other spatial features. This method was beneficial for informing reviewers how an existing place or a proposed design was performing in terms of user experience. Combining ET with real-time walkthrough (RTW) and analytical platform allowed designers to make real-time changes and instantly see how these choices affected a user’s visual attention and interaction. This paper also presents a study investigating the architectural features emphasizing the simulated human behavioral cues and movement information as input parameters. The research is defined as a hybrid method that seeks augmented architectural experience, wayfinding and analyzes its’ performance using ET and RTW. While presenting their concepts through RTW, students used the Tobii Pro eye tracker and analytical software to investigate the attractiveness of the proposed experience related to the five spatial features: face, edge, intensity, blue-yellow contrast, and red-green contrast. The studio projects extended psychological architecture study by exploring, collecting, analyzing, and visualizing behavioral data and using the ET analysis to optimize the design presented through walking and driving simulations. ET allowed students in the transit hub design studio to investigate various design iterations about human perception to enhance spatial organization and navigation.

Authors: Ming Tang (University of Cincinnati).
Issue: Vol 10, No 1 (2021)
Pages: 1-9
Section: Research Paper
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7492/IJAEC.2021.001

This research project was conducted in fall, 2018 at the Urban Mobility Studio, supported by the UC Forward program at the University of Cincinnati. The studio re-flection and proposals are provided by the graduate students: Alan Bossman, Shreya Jasrapuria, Grant Koniski, Jianna Lee, Josiah Ebert, Taylour Upton, Kevin Xu, Yin-ing Fang, Ganesh Raman, Nicole Szparagowski, and Niloufar Kioumarsi. The thesis research was conducted by Lorrin Kline.

 

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.