Pedestrian Behavior in Static and Dynamic Virtual Road Crossing Experiments

Vehicular technology has recently gained increasing popularity, and autonomous driving is a hot topic. To achieve safe and reliable intelligent transportation systems, accurate positioning technologies need to be built to factor in the different types of uncertainties such as pedestrian behavior, random objects, and types of roads and their settings. In this work, we look into the other domains and technologies required to build an autonomous vehicle and conduct a relevant literature analysis. In this work, we look into the current state of research and development in environment detection, pedestrian detection, path planning, motion control, and vehicle cybersecurity for autonomous vehicles. We aim to study the different proposed technologies and compare their approaches. For a car to become fully autonomous, these technologies need to be accurate enough to gain public trust and show immense accuracy in their approach to solving these problems. Public trust and perception of auto vehicles are also explored in this paper. By discussing the opportunities as well as the obstacles of autonomous driving technology, we aim to shed light on future possibilities.

Perceptual decision-making has been widely studied using tasks in which subjects are presented with a visual stimulus and are instructed to select between two alternative options, based on a visual feature of the stimulus. Several studies have reported that the subjects' performance depends on the difficulty to indentify that specific feature. However, if we view decision-making as a continuous process that includes not only perceptual discrimination but also motor action one would expect that the cost of this action will have an impact on decision-making during the action preparation phase. We investigated this hypothesis with a combined theoretical and experimental approach. We setup a psychophysical task with human subjects, consisting of two blocks. In the first block, subjects either had to perform one of four right- or left-ward reaching movements, each with different biomechanical costs, or to make decisions between these right or left reaching movements. The movements were organised in two arrangements: one in which the movement towards the right implied a larger biomechanical cost than the movement towards the left, and one in which the costs were reversed. In the second block, subjects performed a moving dots perceptual discrimination task with different levels of coherence (right or left motion), and reported their decision with a reaching movement to the right or to the left using one of the aforementioned manipulations. As previously reported [1], we observed that when subjects freely chose between reaching movements of varying biomechanical cost, they exhibited a strong bias towards those movements with lower cost. Here, we report that this bias also influenced the motion-discrimination task, as subjects exhibited a tendency to perform the less costly movement when the ambiguity of the stimulus was high. The influence of the biomechanical bias declined as the ambiguity decreased. These results suggest that biomechanical costs are assessed and influence decisions even when the correct response does not depend on the properties of the motor apparatus. To study how visual and biomechanical information might be integrated to make decisions we use a mean-field approach of a binary decision-making model [2].The model consists of two populations of excitatory neurons that are responsive to left or right motion and that compete through mutual inhibition. We propose that even if the decision itself should exclusively depend on a single factor (motion direction), additional factors, such as biomechanics, may also influence the decision-making process. Simulation results show that a constant signal related to the biomechanical cost is necessary and sufficient to explain the probability of choice and reaction time in our motion discrimination task. Interestingly, the model shows that for same motion coherence the activation of the network is higher when the dots move toward the direction reported with the less costly movement than when they move towards the more costly one. An open question is whether the neural activity in the supplementary motor area, dorsal premotor cortex and primary motor cortex exhibit correlates of this biomechanical factor.

We discuss the use of the preferential looking paradigm in eye tracking studies in order to study how infants develop, understand, and attend to the world around them. Eye tracking is a safe and non-invasive way to collect gaze data from infants, and the preferential looking paradigm is simple to design and only requires the infant to be attending to the screen. By simultaneously showing two visual stimuli that differ in one dimension, we can assess whether infants show different looking behavior for either stimulus, thus demonstrating sensitivity to that difference. The challenges in such experimental approaches are that experiments must be kept brief (no more than 10 min) and be carefully controlled such that the two stimuli differ in only one way. The interpretation of null results must also be carefully considered. In this paper, we illustrate a successful example of an infant eye tracking study with a preferential looking paradigm to discover that 6-month-olds are sensitive to linguistic cues in a signed language despite having no prior exposure to signed language, suggesting that infants possess intrinsic or innate sensitivities to these cues.

Understanding the impact of distracting factors on pedestrian safety is crucial for reducing accidents. This study investigates how urban video advertisements influence pedestrian behavior amidst competing visual stimuli. We employed a true experimental design, utilizing eye-tracking technology within a simulated environment to assess participants' visual behavior in the presence of video advertisements. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three scenarios, and we compared attention direction using both an eye-tracker and a virtual reality headset. The eye-tracking data captured from a two-dimensional screen was translated into three-dimensional coordinates for accurate representation in the VR environment. Our findings reveal a significant preference for monitoring vehicular traffic over video advertisements, confirming that participants prioritize safe navigation over engaging with distractions. This research advances the state of the art by demonstrating the reliability of eye-tracking in capturing attentional focus and highlighting the effectiveness of simulated environments for studying pedestrian behavior. The results have important implications for urban planning and safety measures, emphasizing the need to consider environmental distractions in the design of urban spaces

Testing in virtual road environments is a widespread approach to validate advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). A number of automated strategies have been proposed to explore dangerous scenarios, like search-based strategies guided by fitness functions. However, such strategies are likely to produce many uninteresting scenarios, representing so extreme driving situations that fatal accidents are unavoidable irrespective of the action of the ADAS. We propose leveraging datasets from real drives to better align the virtual scenarios to reasonable ones. The alignment is based on a simple distance metric that relates the virtual scenario parameters to the real data. We demonstrate the use of this metric for testing an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system, taking the highD dataset as a reference for normal situations. We show how search-based testing quickly converges toward very distant scenarios that do not bring much insight into the AEB performance. We then provide an example of a distance-aware strategy that searches for less extreme scenarios that the AEB cannot overcome.

Relationships amongst psychological determinants, risk behaviour, and road crashes of young adolescent pedestrians and cyclists: Implications for road safety education programmes

Occupying underground spaces can be associated with poor psychological health. This is due to the unique constraints of the environment, which typically include isolation from the outside world, risk of poor ventilation, and anxiety related to potential safety risks within these spaces. While exposure to nature, such as sea views, is associated with positive psychological health outcomes, little is known if similar effects can be achieved by integrating sea view elements as visual stimuli in underground spaces. In this study, we investigated the impact of virtual sea views on psychological health and cognition by exposing participants to a simulated static sea view, a dynamic sea view, and a control room with no sea view. Participants completed cognitive tasks under each condition, and their subjective emotional responses were collected using questionnaires. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare participants’ health state for each virtual scenario before and during the cognitive tests. Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied to conduct inter-group comparisons. The results from the psychological state assessment showed that static and dynamic sea views can protect against negative emotional shifts. For the cognitive tests, the inverse efficiency score assessment revealed superior efficiency across different tests for different environmental conditions. Further analysis using the Mann-Whitney test with Bonferroni correction suggests that both static sea view (IES = 2.22) and non-sea view conditions (IES = 1.06) were effective for the Stroop test (working memory). However, the IES scores favor the non-sea view control group.

The article presents the study’s results to assess the degree of impact of different categories of objects on traffic flows in the city of Novosibirsk (Russia). The main feature of the area is its intersection with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The highway is a transport corridor linking states in the European part of the continent with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Using structurization, analysis, synthesis, and simulation modeling allowed us to obtain a quantitative and qualitative description of the key objects whose behavior significantly affects the implementation of traffic flows in the study area. Formal rail, road, and pedestrian behavior models are studied and presented. Such models became the basis of simulation modeling, allowing us to estimate the degree of influence of modernization of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the objects of street road infrastructure of Novosibirsk adjacent to the relevant sections of the railway.

Automated vehicles are expected to communicate with vulnerable road users. In two longitudinal studies, we investigated the impact of external Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMI) on pedestrian safety and behavior when interacting with automated vehicles. Utilizing LED strips for communication, these studies probed various factors, including mixed traffic scenarios, presence of eHMIs, and being from Germany or the USA. Our experimental approaches included a Virtual Reality study with 24 participants in Germany and an online study with 28 participants from the USA and Germany. Results revealed that repeated interactions with automated vehicles featuring eHMI significantly enhance pedestrian Trust, Understanding, and perceived safety, while simultaneously diminishing mental workload. Notably, the positive effects of eHMI were consistent across the two countries. US participants exhibited a tendency for higher risk-taking in crossing situations and reported lower mental workloads, underscoring the importance of considering cultural nuances in designing eHMI systems for mixed-traffic environments.

Neural bases of peri-hand space plasticity through tool-use: Insights from a combined computational–experimental approach

Despite a profusion of popular misinformation about the left brain and right brain, there are functional differences between the left and right cerebral hemispheres in humans. Evidence from split-brain patients, individuals with unilateral brain damage, and neuroimaging studies suggest that each hemisphere may be specialized for certain cognitive processes. One way to easily explore these hemispheric asymmetries is with the divided visual field technique, where visual stimuli are presented on either the left or right side of the visual field and task performance is compared between these two conditions; any behavioral differences between the left and right visual fields may be interpreted as evidence for functional asymmetries between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. We developed a simple software package that implements the divided visual field technique, called the Lateralizer, and introduced this experimental approach as a problem-based learning module in a lower-division research methods course. Second-year undergraduate students used the Lateralizer to experimentally challenge and explore theories of the differences between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. Measured learning outcomes after active exploration with the Lateralizer, including new knowledge of brain anatomy and connectivity, were on par with those observed in an upper-division lecture course. Moreover, the project added to the students' research skill sets and seemed to foster an appreciation of the link between brain anatomy and function.

One of the primary objectives of beam energy scan programs involving relativistic heavy-ion collisions at energy range of [Formula: see text] = 2–5[Formula: see text]GeV is to investigate the high-density equation of state (EOS) and explore potential phase transitions in dense baryonic matter. This work is dedicated to a performance study of differential anisotropic flow measurements for identified charged hadrons at the beam kinetic energy T = 2.5A GeV ([Formula: see text] = 2.87[Formula: see text]GeV). The analysis has used simulation of the realistic detector response and reconstruction approach for the MPD experiment at NICA, operating in the fixed-target mode (MPD-FXT).

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) spike randomly in the dark and carry information about visual stimuli to the brain via specific spike patterns. However, following photoreceptor loss, both ON and OFF type of RGCs exhibit spontaneous oscillatory spike activity, which reduces the quality of information they can carry. Furthermore, it is not clear how the oscillatory activity would interact with the experimental treatment approaches designed to produce artificial vision. The oscillatory activity is considered to originate in ON-cone bipolar cells, AII amacrine cells, and/or their synaptic interactions. However, it is unknown how the oscillatory activity is generated in OFF RGCs. We tested the hypothesis that oscillatory activity is transferred from the ON pathway to the OFF pathway via the glycinergic AII amacrine cells. Using extracellular loose-patch and whole cell patch recordings, we recorded oscillatory activity in ON and OFF RGCs and studied their response to strychnine, a specific glycine receptor blocker. The cells were labeled with a fluorescent dye, and their dendritic stratification in inner plexiform layer was studied using confocal microscopy. Application of strychnine resulted in abolition of the oscillatory burst activity in OFF RGCs but not in ON RGCs, implying that oscillatory activity is generated in ON pathway and is transferred to OFF pathway, likely via the glycinergic AII amacrine cells. We found oscillatory activity in RGCs as early as postnatal day 12 in rd1 mouse, when rod degeneration has started but cones are still intact. This suggests that the oscillatory activity in rd1 mouse retina originates in rod pathway.

Playing is considered to be exciting which should be used in the process of overall education since teaching through playing has certain characteristics in terms of providing motivation for learning , thus, it motivates the individual to gather all energies to make performance commensurate with the basic objective as well as availability of factors of suspension , excitement and competition during playing. Swimming is one of the sport activities which is particularly different from other games due to its important role in developing the physical , mental and kinetic abilities as well as its physiological effects on all body organs .Thus the research significance is stated due to the use of kinetic- water games for the sake of developing some of the kinetic abilities of 8 years old children since the child will be able to perform a movement according to his abilities through freedom of movement and far of kinetic performance ,which will contribute in increasing those abilities in the future . The research problem is that the children are weak in learning swimming and afraid of entering water ,therefore, it is required to find kinetic-water game to develop some kinetic abilities and learning free swimming by 8 years old children . The research aimed to identify the effect of kinetic-water game to develop some kinetic abilities and learning free swimming by 8 years old children. The researcher used the experimental approach for processing the research problem .The research sample consisted of 21 learners in courses of learning summer swimming in the Babylon Olympic swimming pool. The research concluded the following: 1. The use of kinetic- water games ,which are full of pleasure and joy , has positively and largely affected the effectiveness of learners performance ,and this led to the development of kinetic abilities and learning of free swimming skills . 2.The data achieved through the tests proved the validity of the teaching units prepared by the researcher through the obvious development in the kinetic abilities and free swimming skills.

One of the major challenges related to teaching programming and algorithmics to amateur students is the time spent to explain a language’s syntax. Also, students who undertake computer programming may find problems that hinder their understanding of concepts and the development of their problem-solving and programming skills. This paper presents the results of an experimental approach that evaluated the interaction of a group of Colombian students with a Web solution within the context of Mobile Robotics to learn programming and algorithmics. The designed Web App is oriented towards autodidactic learning by using Visual Blocks Programming through five interactive modules that include concepts to be learned by students such as the following: variables, sensors, conditionals, cycles, and functions. The solution is designed to present virtual scenarios for Mobile Robotics. This proposal was evaluated with middle school students from the Colombian education system and was compared to the results obtained using Scratch as a reference tool.