Related papers: Utilizing Virtual Reality for Wildfire Evacuation …
Wildfires are uncontrolled fires in the environment that can be caused by humans or nature. In 2020 alone, wildfires in California have burned 4.2 million acres, damaged 10,500 buildings or structures, and killed more than 31 people,…
Artificial intelligence methods are increasingly being explored for managing wildfires and other natural hazards. In particular, reinforcement learning (RL) is a promising path towards improving outcomes in such uncertain decision-making…
Virtual reality allows creating highly immersive visual and auditory experiences, making users feel physically present in the environment. This makes it an ideal platform to simulate dangerous scenarios, including fire evacuation, and study…
In the context of increasing urban risks, particularly from climate change-induced flooding, this paper presents an extended Reality (XR)-based framework to improve user risk training within urban built environments. The framework is…
Apprenticeship and training programs in advanced manufacturing frequently encounter safety and accessibility concerns due to using heavy machinery. Virtual Reality (VR) training addresses such constraints while maintaining the spatial and…
Enhancing the earthquake behavioral responses and post-earthquake evacuation preparedness of building occupants is beneficial to increasing their chances of survival and reducing casualties after the main shock of an earthquake.…
In this short paper, we present our ongoing work on the veriFIRE project -- a collaboration between industry and academia, aimed at using verification for increasing the reliability of a real-world, safety-critical system. The system we…
There has been a plethora of work towards improving robot perception and navigation, yet their application in hazardous environments, like during a fire or an earthquake, is still at a nascent stage. We hypothesize two key challenges here:…
In the past twelve months, our team has had to move rapidly from conducting most of our user experiments in a laboratory setting, to running experiments in the wild away from the laboratory and without direct synchronous oversight from an…
This paper considers the problem of developing suitable behavior models of human evacuees during a robot-guided emergency evacuation. We describe our recent research developing behavior models of evacuees and potential future uses of these…
Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology of great societal potential. Some of its most exciting and promising use cases include remote scene content and untethered lifelike navigation. This article first highlights the relevance of…
Understanding thermal regulation and subjective perception of temperature is crucial for improving thermal comfort and human energy consumption in times of global warming. Previous work shows that an environment's color temperature affects…
The ability to regulate and cope with strong emotions is essential for maintaining our mental health and well-being. However, learning how to emotionally regulate can be a bit of a mystery since it is largely an invisible process and it can…
Early identification of on-site hazards is crucial for accident prevention in the construction industry. Currently, the construction industry relies on experienced safety advisors (SAs) to identify site hazards and generate mitigation…
This study explores the perceptions, challenges, and opportunities associated with using Virtual Reality (VR) as a tool in teacher education among pre-service teachers in a resource-limited setting. Utilizing a qualitative case study…
We design and evaluate a mixed reality real-time communication system for remote assistance during CPR emergencies. Our system allows an expert to guide a first responder, remotely, on how to give first aid. RGBD cameras capture a…
Unmanaged hazards in dangerous construction environments proved to be one of the main sources of injuries and accidents. Hazard recognition is crucial to achieve effective safety management and reduce injuries and fatalities in hazardous…
Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly being used as a research platform for investigating human responses to environmental variables. While VR provides tremendous advantages in terms of variable isolation and manipulation, and ease of…
Virtual reality (VR) is known to cause a "time compression" effect, where the time spent in VR feels to pass faster than the effective elapsed time. Our goal with this research is to investigate if the physical realism of a VR experience…
Virtual environments (VEs) offer potential benefits to health and safety training: exposure to dangerous (virtual) environments; the opportunity for experiential learning; and a high level of control over the training, in that aspects can…