Mitigating blind spot collision utilizing ultrasonic gap perimeter sensor

Failure to identify the vehicle by the side of the vehicle or in other word as blind spot area, especially larger vehicles are one of the causes of the accident. For some drivers, the simple solution is to place an additional side mirror. However, it is not the best solution because this additional side mirrors do not provide an accurate picture of actual or estimated distance to the object or another vehicle. The objective of this project is to identify the causes of automobile collisions, notably the side collision impact causes by the blind spot, to develop a system that can detect the presence vehicles on the side and to develop a system that are affordable for normal car users. To achieve this objective, flow chart was designed to help write coding using Arduino 1.0.2 and design hardware. This system can detect the obstacle within range 2cm to 320cm from the edge of the project vehicle. Before this system developed, the survey was conducted to determine what the driver wants. After that, the design process is carried out. The input to this system is Ping ultrasonic sensor, LCD, LED, and siren for the output part. LCD and LED were displaying the distance from the vehicle and the siren will be switched on to warn the driver when have obstacle in the blind spot area. As a conclusion, the Mitigating Blind Spot Collision Utilizing Ultrasonic Gap Perimeter Sensor System has successfully completed. This system able to detect the presence of other vehicles on the side of the project vehicle, especially in the blind spot area and will alert the driver when the vehicle is nearby when the alarm system is operated. The efficiency of this system to detect objects in the blind spot area is 79.82%. Others, it will give the display value less than one second after obstacle exists in front of the sensor. This operating time is most important because if the system is slow, the main function of this system to detect the obstacle in the blind spot area is not achieved

Predictive coding: A Possible Explanation of Filling-in at the blind spot

Filling-in at the blind-spot is a perceptual phenomenon in which the visual system fills the informational void, which arises due to the absence of retinal input corresponding to the optic disc, with surrounding visual attributes. Though there are enough evidence to conclude that some kind of neural computation is involved in filling-in at the blind spot especially in the early visual cortex, the knowledge of the actual computational mechanism is far from complete. We have investigated the bar experiments and the associated filling-in phenomenon in the light of the hierarchical predictive coding framework, where the blind-spot was represented by the absence of early feed-forward connection. We recorded the responses of predictive estimator neurons at the blind-spot region in the V1 area of our three level (LGN-V1-V2) model network. These responses are in agreement with the results of earlier physiological studies and using the generative model we also showed that these response profiles indeed represent the filling-in completion. These demonstrate that predictive coding framework could account for the filling-in phenomena observed in several psychophysical and physiological experiments involving bar stimuli. These results suggest that the filling-in could naturally arise from the computational principle of hierarchical predictive coding (HPC) of natural images.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

Motion extrapolation into the blind spot: Research report

The flash-lag effect, in which a moving object is perceived ahead of a colocalized flash, has led to keen empirical and theoretical debates. To test the proposal that a predictive mechanism overcomes neural delays in vision by shifting objects spatially, we asked observers to judge the final position of a bar moving into the retinal blind spot. The bar was perceived to disappear in positions well inside the unstimulated area. Given that photoreceptors are absent in the blind spot, the perceived shift must be based on the history of the moving object. Such predictive overshoots are suppressed when a moving object disappears abruptly from the retina, triggering retinal transient signals. No such transient-driven suppression occurs when the object disappears by virtue of moving into the blind spot. The extrapolated position of the moving bar revealed in this manner provides converging support for visual prediction. © Copyright © 2008 Association for Psychological Science

Dark Matter Blind Spots at One-Loop

We evaluate the impact of one-loop electroweak corrections to the spin-independent dark matter (DM) scattering cross-section with nucleons ($\sigma_{\rm SI}$), in models with a so-called blind spot for direct detection, where the leading-order prediction for the relevant DM coupling to the Higgs boson, and therefore $\sigma_{\rm SI}$, are vanishingly small. Adopting a simple illustrative scenario in which the DM state results from the mixing of electroweak singlet and doublet fermions, we compute the relevant higher order corrections to the scalar effective operator contributions to $\sigma_{\rm SI}$, stemming from both triangle and box diagrams involving the SM and dark sector fields. It is observed that in a significant region of the singlet-doublet model-space, the one-loop corrections ``unblind'' the tree-level blind spots and lead to detectable SI scattering rates at future multi-ton scale liquid Xenon experiments, with $\sigma_{\rm SI}$ reaching values up to a few times $10^{-47} {~\rm cm}^2$, for a weak scale DM with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ Yukawa couplings. Furthermore, we find that there always exists a new SI blind spot at the next-to-leading order, which is perturbatively shifted from the leading order one in the singlet-doublet mass parameters. For comparison, we also present the tree-level spin-dependent scattering cross-sections near the SI blind-spot region, that could lead to a larger signal. Our results can be mapped to the blind-spot scenario for bino-Higgsino DM in the MSSM, with other sfermions, the heavier Higgs boson, and the wino decoupled.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures; Minor corrections, references updated, version published in JHE

The Role of Information and Reflection in Reducing the Bias Blind Spot: a Cross-Cultural Study

The current study examined whether two types of intervention reduced the bias blind spot (i.e., perceptions of others being more biased than one’s self) and whether the bias blind spot was related to culture, reasoning performance, and motivation. The design was a 2 (information: reading or not reading about the bias blind spot) x 2 (reflection reflecting on the effects of biases on other or non-relevant reflection) x 2 (priming: reasoning tasks completed before or after the interventions). Students (N = 193) from Western and Middle Eastern cultures participated online or in a class. In each condition, participants responded to several reasoning tasks and were later told the correct answers to the reasoning tasks. In the bias blind spot information condition, participants read about the bias blind spot and, specifically, were told most people believe they are less likely to commit cognitive biases than other people. In the reflection condition, participants were asked to write about possible consequences of the bias blind spot. Priming referred to whether the interventions were given before or after participants solved the reasoning problems. Analyses indicated that neither information nor reflection significantly reduced the bias blind spot. However, priming reduced the bias. When the reasoning tasks were presented before the interventions (priming condition), the bias blind spot was lower than when the tasks were presented after the interventions. Also, although reasoning performance failed to predict variation in the bias blind spot, motivation to be unbiased was predictive. Further, cultural differences were found: Middle Eastern students showed higher levels of the bias blind spot than did Western students. The findings from the current study might be useful in understanding potential factors that attenuate the bias blind spot and suggest culture as a variable worthy of further examination

Book review: America’s blind spot: Chávez, oil and US security

Latin America holds some of the world’s biggest oil reserves, but unstable political events in the region are hindering its potential, especially in Venezuela. Global U.S. security would benefit from a revamping of outdated policies towards Latin America, argue Andrés Cala and Michael Economides. This is a blind spot in American politics, one that threatens U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. In this book, the authors aim to offer a thorough analysis of key geopolitical and economic threats to the U.S., highlighting the need for a new Latin American policy doctrine based on military and strategic priorities. Reviewed by Luis Boscán. America’s Blind Spot: Chávez, Oil and US Security. Andrés Cala and Michael Economides. Continuum Books. 201

The Effect of Age and Gender on Visual Search During Lane Changing

This study examined visual search behavior relative to three regions of interest (ROI) (side mirror, rear view mirror, and blind spot) for self-initiated lane changes in a sample of 108 drivers under actual highway conditions. As has been observed previously, few drivers scan all three of the ROI prior to executing a lane change, with turning around to inspect the blind spot being the lowest frequency behavior. Age, gender and direction (left or right lane change) were found to influence visual search behaviors. For lane changes to the right, blind spot checking occurred less than 32% of the time in females and less than 15% of the time in males. This low level of blind spot checking to the right was consistent across younger and older age groupings. Interestingly, the most notable age discrepancy was in checking the left blind spot. Younger drivers checked their left blind spot 53.3% of the time compared to a rate of 23.9% for drivers in their 60s. Implications of these findings for both driver remediation programs and the increasing availability of blind spot identification systems are considered