ROMJIST Volume 23, No. S, 2020, pp. S29-S39
Radu-Daniel VATAVU Connecting Research from Assistive Vision on Smart Eyewear Devices with Crisis Management and Mitigation Systems: A Position Paper
ABSTRACT: This article presents an overview of several results obtained in the framework of the “Senses++” initiative and research project with the goal to design and engineer interactive wearable prototypes to enhance visual perception for people with visual impairments by means of assistive vision techniques implemented on smart eyewear devices. Three scientific contributions are described in the specific context of lifelogging, video streaming, and Augmented Reality research: (1) life abstraction as a new concept for privacy-preserving lifelogging systems, (2) broadcasting of video content to remote audiences, and (3) assistive, mediated and augmented vision for see-through head-mounted displays. Several opportunities are discussed for transferring these results from the area of assistive vision to the application domain of Information Technology systems designed to support crisis management and mitigation. To this end, each application opportunity regarding a potential transfer of knowledge and technology, originally developed in the context of assistive mediated and augmented vision, is evaluated from the perspective of fulfilling six criteria representing distinct objectives for crisis management systems: (1) crisis coordination, (2) handling of abnormal situations, (3) handling limited resources, (4) resource allocation, (5) identification and execution of missions, and (6) archival of crisis information. In the context of the special issue of the Romanian Journal of Information Science and Technology on the topic of “Information Science and Technology in Crises,” this article takes the form of a position paper in order to draw attention to the possibility of reusing, adopting, and adapting research results and developments achieved in other fields and areas of scientific investigation for the purpose of crises management and mitigation.KEYWORDS: Assistive vision; Sensory augmentation; Augmented vision; Mediated vision; Human-Computer Interaction; Smart devices; Smart wearables; Wearable computing; Applications; Information Technology in crisis managementRead full text (pdf)