Digital Transformation

The amount of literature on Digital Transformation is staggering—and it keeps growing. Why, then, come out with yet another such document? Moreover, any text aiming at explaining the Digital Transformation by presenting a snapshot is going to become obsolete in a blink of an eye, most likely to be already obsolete at the time it is first published. The FDC Initiative on Digital Reality felt there is a need to look at the Digital Transformation from the point of view of a profound change that is pervading the entire society—a change made possible by technology and that keeps changing due to technology evolution opening new possibilities but is also a change happening because it has strong economic reasons. The direction of this change is not easy to predict because it is steered by a cultural evolution of society, an evolution that is happening in niches and that may expand rapidly to larger constituencies and as rapidly may fade away. This creation, selection by experimentation, adoption, and sudden disappearance, is what makes the whole scenario so unpredictable and continuously changing.The amount of literature on Digital Transformation is staggering—and it keeps growing. Why, then, come out with yet another such document? Moreover, any text aiming at explaining the Digital Transformation by presenting a snapshot is going to become obsolete in a blink of an eye, most likely to be already obsolete at the time it is first published. The FDC Initiative on Digital Reality felt there is a need to look at the Digital Transformation from the point of view of a profound change that is pervading the entire society—a change made possible by technology and that keeps changing due to technology evolution opening new possibilities but is also a change happening because it has strong economic reasons. The direction of this change is not easy to predict because it is steered by a cultural evolution of society, an evolution that is happening in niches and that may expand rapidly to larger constituencies and as rapidly may fade away. This creation, selection by experimentation, adoption, and sudden disappearance, is what makes the whole scenario so unpredictable and continuously changing

License to Supervise:Influence of Driving Automation on Driver Licensing

To use highly automated vehicles while a driver remains responsible for safe driving, places new – yet demanding, requirements on the human operator. This is because the automation creates a gap between drivers’ responsibility and the human capabilities to take responsibility, especially for unexpected or time-critical transitions of control. This gap is not being addressed by current practises of driver licensing. Based on literature review, this research collects drivers’ requirements to enable safe transitions in control attuned to human capabilities. This knowledge is intended to help system developers and authorities to identify the requirements on human operators to (re)take responsibility for safe driving after automation

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Overtaking as an interactional achievement: video analyses of participants' practices in traffic

In this article we pursue a systematic and extensive study of overtaking in traffic as an interactional event. Our focus is on the accountable organisation and accom- plishment of overtaking by road users in real-world traffic situations. Data and anal- ysis are drawn from multiple research groups studying driving from an ethnometh- odological and conversation analytic perspective. Building on multimodal and se- quential analyses of video recordings of overtaking events, the article describes the shared practices which overtakers and overtaken parties use in displaying, recog- nising and coordinating their manoeuvres. It examines the three sequential phases of an overtaking event: preparation and projection; the overtaking proper; the re- alignment post-phase including retrospective accounts and assessments. We iden- tify how during each of these phases drivers and passengers organise intra-vehicle and inter-vehicle practices: driving and non-driving related talk between vehicle- occupants, the emerging spatiotemporal ecology of the road, and the driving actions of other road users. The data is derived from a two camera set-up recording the road ahead and car interior. The recordings are from three settings: daily commuting, driving lessons, race-car coaching. The events occur on a variety of road types (mo- torways, country roads, city streets, a race track, etc.), in six languages (English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, and Swedish) and in seven countries (Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK). From an exception- ally diverse collection of video data, the study of which is made possible thanks to the innovative collaboration of multiple researchers, the article exhibits the range of practical challenges and communicative skills involved in overtaking.status: Published onlin

Performance shaping factors affecting driver safety-related behaviour in urban rail systems : Tyne & Wear Metro case

PhD ThesisIt is accepted that train drivers’ safety performance is affected by numerous performance shaping factors (PSF). Design of the physical environment is among these factors. Even though the body of knowledge in rail human factors is increasing, it is limited as it is often i) reactive, ii) focusing mainly on single type incidents, iii) prioritising high profile accidents, iv) not always fully addressing existing risk profiles. Railway systems with different design features are usually grouped together for research purposes thus disregarding the fact that system design can alter effects of the PSFs. This is especially true for urban rail systems. A combination of concurrent and sequential research in this mixed methods thesis has investigated PSFs associated with metro systems design, using the Tyne & Wear Metro system as its application case. The PSFs embedded in everyday operations have been studied on different system levels through historic incident analysis, drivers’ surveys, semi-structured interviews, eye-tracking and simulation experiments. Some of the established methodologies have been adapted in order to address the research objectives set. Novel approaches have been developed for the deployment of in-service eye-tracking using dynamic areas of interest and the development of a low-cost high fidelity simulator using gaming software and hardware. Selected station layouts have been assessed through measures of workload, stress and signal checking behaviour thus supporting PSF inter-dependence. The results suggest the influence on the performance of arrival and departure procedures of the angle between a signal, a driver and a mirror. Among the latent conditions potentially inducing incident propagation are passenger levels, the platform side, informativeness of design elements, openness and lighting conditions of a station, and distances from a stopping position to other elements of the station design.Institute for Sustainability at Newcastle University, through the Sir James Knott and Ridley PhD Scholarshi

Intersection Geometric Design and Operational Guidelines for Older Drivers and Pedestrians, Volume I: Final Report

DTFH61-92-C-00142This project was performed to develop guidelines for changes in the geometric design and operations at intersections with the greatest potential to aid in their use by older drivers and pedestrians. A literature review identified age-related diminished capabilities that affect performance at intersections, and examined current design standards and their adequacy for older road users. Problem identification studies (accident database analysis, task analysis, focus group discussions, field observations) were conducted to better define older persons' difficulties in intersection use, and an expert panel met to prioritize variables for more extensive laboratory and field studies later in the project. These studies subsequently focused on age (including both young-old and old-old groups) and the effects of opposite left-turn lane geometry (offset amount and direction), right-turn channelization and curb radius, and varying median pedestrian refuge island configurations, using both objective (performance) and subjective measures. A critique of the data obtained in these studies during a second expert panel meeting concluded that sufficient evidence exists to support guidelines for: (1) geometric design to ensure a minimum required sight distance for drivers turning left from a major roadway, and (2) operational changes to accommodate older drivers where (re)design of an intersection to meet sight distance requirements is not feasible. In addition, a revision of Case V in the AASHTO Green Book to determine sight distance requirements that reflect the perceptual task of gap judgment by a left-turning driver more accurately than the current assumptions in Case IIIB is recommended, and further research needs to enhance the safety and mobility of older road users at intersections are identified

Eye-tracking technology in vehicles: application and design

This work analyses the eye-tracking technology and, as an outcome, it presents an idea of implementing it, along with other kinds of technology, in vehicles. The main advantage of such an implementation would be to augment safety while driving. The setup and the methodology used for detecting human activity and interaction using the means of the eye-tracking technology are investigated. Research in that area is growing rapidly and its results are used in a variety of cases. The main reasons for that growth are the constant lowering of prices of the special equipment that is necessary, the portability that is available in some cases as well as the easiness of use that make the usage of that technology more user-friendly than it was a few years ago. The whole idea of eye-tracking is to track the movements of the eyes in an effort to determine the direction of the gaze, using sophisticated software and purpose built hardware. This manuscript, makes a brief introduction in the history of eye monitoring presenting the very early scientific approaches used in an effort to better understand the movements of the human while tracking an object or during an activity. Following, there is an overview of the theory and the methodology used to track a specific object. As a result there exists a short presentation of the image processing and the machine learning procedures that are used to accomplish such tasks. Thereafter, we further analyze the specific eye-tracking technologies and techniques that are used nowadays and the characteristics that affect the exact choice of eye-tracking equipment. For the appropriate choice we have to take into account the area of research-interest in which the equipment will be used. In addition, the main categories of eye-tracking applications are presented and we shortlist the latest state of the art eye-tracking commercial systems. Following, we present our first approach, trying to describe an eye-tracking device that could be used in vehicles offering much better safety standards, controlling various parameters, continuously checking the readiness of the driver and alerting him for potential imminent collision incidents. Finally, we describe the existing way of connecting a device, in our case an eye-tracker, can be connected to an automobile’s system