Recent News

Nov 10, 2016 | Kotaro
Kotaro Hara gave an invited presentation about the Project Sidewalk at GroupSight workshop, held in Austin Texas during the HCOMP conference this year. In the presentation, Kotaro introduced our work on locating sidewalk accessibility features by combining crowdsourcing, computer vision, machine learning, and Google Street View.

Jul 30, 2015 | Kotaro
Our project got featured on Technica.ly after giving a presentation at Transportation Tech in Baltimore. See the article here: How this UMD researcher is using Google Street View to make the physical world more accessible.
Projects
Publications
Project Sidewalk: A Web-based Crowdsourcing Tool for Collecting Sidewalk Accessibility Data at Scale
Proceedings of CHI 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 23.8% (705 / 2960) | Best Paper Award
PDF | doi | Citation | Code | Project Sidewalk
Grand challenges in accessible maps
Interactions
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Accessibility-Infused Maps
A Pilot Deployment of an Online Tool for Large-Scale Virtual Auditing of Urban Accessibility
Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2017
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Scalable Methods to Collect and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility Data for People with Mobility Impairments
UMD CS PhD Dissertation
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
The Design of Assistive Location-based Technologies for People with Ambulatory Disabilities: A Formative Study
Proceedings of CHI 2016 | Acceptance Rate: 25.0% (600 / 2400)
PDF | doi | Citation | Accessibility-Infused Maps • Project Sidewalk
Characterizing and Visualizing Physical World Accessibility at Scale Using Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning
SIGACCESS Newsletter '15
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Improving Public Transit Accessibility for Blind Riders by Crowdsourcing Bus Stop Landmark Locations with Google Street View: An Extended Analysis
TACCESS 2015
Scalable methods to collect and visualize sidewalk accessibility data for people with mobility impairments
Extended Abstract Proceedings of UIST 2014
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Tohme: Detecting Curb Ramps in Google Street View Using Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning
Proceedings of UIST 2014
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme
An Initial Study of Automatic Curb Ramp Detection with Crowdsourced Verification using Google Street View Images
Poster Proceedings of HCOMP 2013
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme
Improving Public Transit Accessibility for Blind Riders by Crowdsourcing Bus Stop Landmark Locations with Google Street View
Proceedings of ASSETS 2013 | Best Paper Award
PDF | doi | Citation | Talk | Crowdsourcing Bus Stop Landmarks
Exploring Early Solutions for Automatically Identifying Inaccessible Sidewalks in the Physical World using Google Street View
HCIC2013 Workshop
PDF | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme
Combining Crowdsourcing and Google Street View to Identify Street-level Accessibility Problems
Proceedings of CHI 2013
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
A feasibility study of crowdsourcing and google street view to determine sidewalk accessibility
Poster Proceedings of ASSETS 2012
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Talks
Nov. 3, 2016 | GroupSight @ HCOMP2016
Austin, Texas
Oct. 1, 2013 | Proceedings of ASSETS 2013
Bellevue, Washington