How simple prompts can make partially automated cars safer

North Carolina State University

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A new study finds that prompts do a good job of getting drivers to engage with their environment and take over control of the vehicle when necessary while using partially automated driving systems – with one exception. If drivers are deeply distracted, these system-generated prompts have little or no effect. This image shows an example of a driving-related conversational prompt displayed during automated driving.

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Credit: Xiangqing Ding, NC State University

A new study finds that prompts do a good job of getting drivers to engage with their environment and take over control of the vehicle when necessary while using partially automated driving systems – with one exception. If drivers are deeply distracted, these system-generated prompts have little or no effect.

Partially automated driving systems – such as adaptive cruise control and technologies that keep a car in its lane or automate lane changes – are increasingly common in new vehicle models. However, these technologies do not allow a car to drive itself.

“Drivers still need to be aware of their surroundings and be able to take control of the vehicle at any time, in order to deal with system failures or other unexpected situations,” says Jing Feng, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. “Ensuring that drivers are engaged and able to assume control of the vehicle is a significant challenge.”

“Our work here focused on assessing whether conversational prompts from the partially automated system are effective at keeping drivers engaged and, by extension, better able to take control of the vehicle in a timely way,” says Xiaoliu Bai, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at NC State.

In this context, a conversational prompt consists of an audio cue – such as a beep – and a text message asking the driver to answer a question about the driving environment. For example, “Is the speed limit still 55 miles per hour?” or “Is the vehicle behind you following at a safe distance?”

To assess the effectiveness of conversational prompts at maintaining driver engagement, the researchers conducted two experiments.

In the first experiment, the researchers recruited 24 study participants. Using a vehicle simulator, all 24 participants went on six “drives.” During some of the drives, participants received no prompts. During some of the drives, participants received driving-oriented conversational prompts. And during the remaining drives, participants received conversational prompts unrelated to driving, with questions such as “Did you eat breakfast this morning?” In all six drives, the study participant was required to take over the vehicle at some point.

In the second experiment, the researchers recruited 24 different study participants. The participants went on the same six “drives” under the same conditions. However, in the second experiment, the study participants were also offered a cash reward for solving anagrams on their phone while driving.

“We asked the participants in Experiment 2 to solve anagrams because that is a non-driving-related task that is cognitively demanding,” Bai says. “And it made a significant difference.”

The researchers found that study participants in Experiment 1 did the best job of taking over the vehicle promptly when they were receiving and interacting with driving-related conversational prompts. However, even the conversational prompts unrelated to driving improved performance when compared to study participants receiving no prompts at all.

But in Experiment 2, when participants were engaged in a cognitively demanding task, driver performance suffered across the board – and the prompts made virtually no difference.

“Processing driving-related information is clearly valuable at helping maintain driver engagement,” says Feng. “However, our findings also underscore the importance of having drivers maintain the proper cognitive workload when driving with partially automated systems.

“If the cognitive workload is too high, as in Experiment 2, drivers are too distracted to engage effectively with driving tasks and responsibilities,” says Feng. “But if the workload is too low, drivers get bored. That is likely why, in Experiment 1, even prompts that had nothing to do with driving improved driver performance; those prompts helped maintain the proper workload.”

“A clear takeaway message here is that incorporating driving-related prompts into partially automated driving systems can improve driver performance at taking the wheel when necessary, which has real-world ramifications for traffic safety,” Bai says.

“Another takeaway message is that even these prompts are insufficient to improve driver performance when drivers are cognitively engaged in demanding non-driving-related tasks,” Bai says. “Additional research is needed to see what, if anything, can be done to mitigate these situations.”

The paper, “Awaking the disengaged: Can driving-related prompts engage drivers in partial automation?,” is published in the journal Human Factors.

Can text prompts improve safety in partially automated vehicles?

Drivers can sometimes be less engaged with their surroundings when driving a partially-automated vehicle. A recent study finds conversational text prompts can improve engagement -- and safety. This image shows researcher Xiaolu Bai driving in the simulator while a conversational prompt is displayed.

Credit

Xiangqing Ding, NC State University

Journal

Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

DOI

10.1177/00187208251314248 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Awakening the Disengaged: Can Driving-Related Prompts Engage Drivers in Partial Automation?

Article Publication Date

22-Jan-2025

 

Towards a natural control of robotic limbs

Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Italy and Imperial College London in the UK demonstrate the connection between hand and brain movement patterns, paving the way for the design of bionic limbs that feel natural to users

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT

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In the picture an individual with a limb deficiency wears the system during familiarization. The researchers designed a soft prosthetic hand with two degrees of actuation, enabling it to perform postures driven by two primary postural synergies. This innovative design was tested in real-time scenarios with 11 participants without physical impairments and 3 prosthesis users.

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Credit: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia/Imperial College London

Genova (Italy)/London (UK) – 28 January 2025 - Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Italy and Imperial College London in the UK are paving the way for the design of bionic limbs that feel natural to users. They demonstrate the connection between hand movement patterns and motoneuron control patterns. The study, published in Science Robotics, also reports the application of these findings to a soft prosthetic hand, which was successfully tested by individuals with physical impairments.

The research study sees the collaboration of two research teams, one at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Genova, Italy, led by Antonio Bicchi, and Imperial College London, UK led by Dario Farina. It is the outcome of the project “Natural BionicS" funded by European Research Council (ERC) whose goal is to move beyond the model of current prosthetic limbs, which are often abandoned by patients because they do not respond in a 'natural' way to their movement and control needs.

For the central nervous system to recognize the bionic limb as “natural,” it is essential for the prosthesis to interact with the environment in the same way a real limb would. For this reason, researchers believe that the prostheses should be designed based on the theory of sensorimotor synergies and soft robotics technologies, first proposed by Antonio Bicchi’s group at IIT, such as the Soft-Hand robotic hand. If a natural-feeling interface between our nervous system and an artificial body is established, implications could go even beyond prosthetics - e.g. to allow seamless integration of humans with robot parts to assist, empower, and extend ourselves.

The study published on Science Robotics shows for the first time that two fundamental structures that organize our body, i.e. synergies at the level of spinal motoneurons and those at the level of hand behaviours, are linked. Synergies are the coordinated patterns of muscle activation and joint movements of the human body.

Researchers discovered that hand postures can be interpreted as the observable outcomes of underlying neural structures within the central nervous system. These structures can be accessed and decoded using advanced algorithms applied to the electric signals produced by our muscles. These signals are the peripheral manifestation of the activity of neural cells in the spinal cord that drive muscle contractions. Once the activity of these cells is decoded, it is possible to identify specific cell groupings that underlie the hand behaviour. This breakthrough not only enhances the understanding of the neural mechanisms driving motor control but also opens new avenues for developing more intuitive and effective human-machine interfaces. Researchers can now co-design multi-synergistic robotic hands and neural decoding algorithms, allowing prosthetic users to achieve natural control to span infinite postures and execute dexterous tasks, including in-hand manipulation, not feasible with other approaches.

More specifically, the researchers designed a soft prosthetic hand with two degrees of actuation, enabling it to perform postures driven by two primary postural synergies. This innovative design was tested in real-time scenarios with 11 participants without physical impairments and three prosthesis users.

To achieve seamless control, the team developed an advanced online method that maps decoded neural synergies into the continuous operation of the two-synergy prosthetic hand. The results demonstrated that integrating neural and postural synergies allows for precise, natural, and coordinated control of multidigit actions. This approach not only ensures smoother and more intuitive movements but also represents a significant step forward in creating prosthetic devices that closely mimic the functionality and fluidity of natural limbs.

Such advancements have profound implications for improving the quality of life for prosthesis users, offering them greater autonomy and a more natural connection to their artificial limbs.

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Journal

Science Robotics

DOI

10.1126/scirobotics.ado9509 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Merging motoneuron and postural synergies in prosthetic hand design for natural bionic interfacing

Article Publication Date

25-Jan-2025

The environmental and economic impact of COVID-19 on Japan’s tourism industry

Researchers find the economic, social, and environmental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Japan’s international tourism industry

Kyushu University

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New data from Kyushu University shows the economic, social, and environmental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Japan's inbound tourism industry in the year 2020. That year saw the loss of 33 million inbound tourists, resulting in 3.44 trillion yen of value-added loses, and a decline in employment for 868,976 people, and a reduction of 11.6 megatons of CO2.

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Credit: Kyushu University/Shigemi Kagawa

Fukuoka, Japan—It goes without saying that the tourism industry in Japan is booming. Walk around any major city and you’ll see people from all around the world enjoying the country’s food, culture, and hospitality. Naturally, the revenue generated by the industry has had a positive economic impact throughout Japan. However, between 2020 and 2022, the tourism industry was hit particularly hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions. While the government implemented policies to support the industry, the full impact of the pandemic on the economy is still being studied.

Now, economists at Kyushu University have published new data on the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Japan’s inbound tourism industry. The report, published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, presents data on the loss of yen, loss of employment opportunities, and reduction in CO2 emissions from Japan’s tourism industry in 2020.

“I began this project when I was an undergraduate student in 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. 2020 saw the loss of around 33 million tourists coming into Japan. My research interest was the tourism industry, so I started researching the impact of the pandemic and travel restrictions on the sector,” explains first author Yusuke Oga PhD candidate and JSPS Research Fellow at Kyushu University’s Graduate School of Economics. “I have also been researching how to make the tourism industry more sustainable. So, in this study, I also wanted to examine how the pandemic affected the industry's environmental impact.”

The team decided to focus on the year 2020, when the first travel restrictions were implemented. They first constructed a ‘counterfactual scenario,’ simulating the industry’s 2020 economic output if there had been no pandemic. This was then compared to the actual 2020 data.

Their analysis implemented an input-output analysis framework—a method that integrates the direct and indirect effects of the economy—into three factors: economic, social, and environmental. In addition, each factor was evaluated on three economic effects: direct, indirect, and income. Direct effects include industries directly affected by tourism, such as hotels, services, or the gift industry. Indirect effects refer to industries outside of the tourism industry that still play a major role, such as the energy industry or food producers and suppliers. Finally, income effects cover direct spending of the Japanese people from the money that comes into the tourism industry.

“Our analysis showed that the economic impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry was a loss of 3.44 trillion Japanese yen, or about 22 billion US dollars. The most affected industries were the food and beverage services like restaurants, hotels, and wholesalers,” continues Oga. “On the societal side it resulted in the employment declines for 868,976 people. The highest employment losses were also seen in restaurants and hotels.”

Their environmental analysis revealed a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. The data showed that restrictions on inbound tourism resulted in a reduction of 11.6 megatons (Mt) of CO2 emissions. In 2020, the average annual CO2 emission of a Japanese household was 2.88 tons. 11.6 Mt is equivalent to the annual emissions of approximately 4 million households.

Professor Shigemi Kagawa, who led the study, explains that this new data can provide policymakers with a clearer view of the economics of the tourism industry and help them better prepare and focus the government’s support network should a crisis similar to COVID-19 occur in the future. Moreover, the environmental data shows that Japan should make efforts to promote sustainable tourism.

“Tourism in Japan will likely continue to grow, so we must consider its environmental impact. Finding the right policies and incentives will be difficult, but I think it is possible,” concludes Oga. “Our next step will be to analyze prefectural level data and see what differences there are locally. Additionally, this methodology can be applied to tourism data from other countries. I would be interested to see what the data looks like on global scale.”

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For more information about this research, see "Triple Bottom Line Analysis of the Decline in Foreign Tourist Demand in Japan due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Counterfactual Structural Decomposition Approach," Yusuke Oga, and Shigemi Kagawa, Journal of Industrial Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13615

About Kyushu University 
Founded in 1911, Kyushu University is one of Japan's leading research-oriented institutes of higher education, consistently ranking as one of the top ten Japanese universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World Rankings. The university is one of the seven national universities in Japan, located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu—the most southwestern of Japan’s four main islands with a population and land size slightly larger than Belgium. Kyushu U’s multiple campuses—home to around 19,000 students and 8000 faculty and staff—are located around Fukuoka City, a coastal metropolis that is frequently ranked among the world's most livable cities and historically known as Japan's gateway to Asia. Through its VISION 2030, Kyushu U will “drive social change with integrative knowledge.” By fusing the spectrum of knowledge, from the humanities and arts to engineering and medical sciences, Kyushu U will strengthen its research in the key areas of decarbonization, medicine and health, and environment and food, to tackle society’s most pressing issues.

The bamboo grove in Arashiyama, Kyoto. A popular destination for many international tourists.

Credit

Kyushu University/Shigemi Kagawa

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Journal

Journal of Industrial Ecology

DOI

10.1111/jiec.13615 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Triple Bottom Line Analysis of the Decline in Foreign Tourist Demand in Japan due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Counterfactual Structural Decomposition Approach

Article Publication Date

27-Jan-2025

 CHEMICAL BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

SwRI creating chemical, biological threat mitigation decision support tool for U.S. military

Risk Evaluation & Medical Decision Efficacy (REMEDY) tool supports agile decisions

Southwest Research Institute

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SAN ANTONIO – January 28, 2025 – Southwest Research Institute has formed an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, chemists and biologists to develop software to help the United States Department of Defense (DOD) identify and respond to chemical and biological threats.

Through a contract with the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC), SwRI will develop a Risk Evaluation & Medical Decision Efficacy (REMEDY) tool to help make agile medical decisions, about countermeasures and other actions to address a danger or threat.

“The end goal of REMEDY is to help the U.S. military evaluate life-saving drugs, treatments and strategies in response to chemical and biological threats,” said Prativa Hartnett, a research computer scientist in SwRI’s Intelligent Systems Division who leads the project.

Chemical and biological threats can severely affect personnel, infrastructure and national security. These threats require specialized consideration to achieve adequate defensive measures. When evaluating the risk, planners must consider force vulnerabilities, operational consequences, defensive countermeasures and other factors.“ We aim to give military planners faster reaction times, so they can rapidly answer questions like, ‘what medical countermeasures are available and what are the risks?’” said Hakima Ibaroudene, manager of SwRI’s Bioinformatics Section. “In complex scenarios, the ideal medications might not be accessible in all regions, or suitable storage facilities for certain vaccines may be lacking. REMEDY will help evaluate these challenges and propose alternative solutions.”

SwRI’s Intelligent Systems Division will develop the software while the Institute’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division will evaluate chemical threats and mitigation strategies.

REMEDY mission risk evaluations will evaluate chemical and biological threats by layering threat agent risk with medical countermeasure (MCM) benefits and risks, including fielding risks. REMEDY will help quantify risks and benefits of Federal Drug Administration-approved, repurposed and investigational MCMs, enabling operational planners to make informed decisions about deployment in dynamic mission environments. REMEDY will suggest plans that maximize force survivability and fitness for duty.

SwRI offers expertise in building decision support tools for a variety of government and industry clients. REMEDY builds upon the Institute’s growing expertise in software development and medical applications of artificial intelligence. SwRI projects are using machine learning and AI to assess cancer and other diseases, and analytics to make complex decisions from disparate data sources.

This research was supported by funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The effort is sponsored by the government under Other Transaction Number W81XWH-15-9-0001. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. government.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industries/bioinformatics-data-analysis-services.

 

Large magma bodies found beneath dormant volcanoes, surprising scientists

Cornell University

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ITHACA, N.Y. – New Cornell University led-research challenges the long-standing belief that active volcanoes have large magma bodies that are expelled during eruptions and then dissipate over time as the volcanoes become dormant.

Researchers used seismic waves to identify magma chambers beneath the surface of six volcanoes of various sizes and dormancy within the Cascade Range, which includes half of the U.S. volcanoes designated by the U.S. Geological Survey as “very high threat.” The team found that all of the volcanoes, including dormant ones, have persistent and large magma bodies.

The study, led by postdoctoral researcher Guanning Pang, was published in Nature Geoscience and co-authored by Geoffrey Abers, professor in geological sciences.

Their results are surprising given that some of these volcanoes, such as the Crater Lake volcano in Oregon, have not been active in millennia.

“Regardless of eruption frequency, we see large magma bodies beneath many volcanoes,” Pang said. “It appears that these magma bodies exist beneath volcanoes over their whole lifetime, not just during an active state.”

The fact that more volcanoes have sustained magma bodies is an important consideration for how researchers may monitor and predict future volcanic activity. The U.S. Geological Survey has been expanding and upgrading its volcanic monitoring networks in the Cascade Range and elsewhere as part of the National Volcano Early Warning System, with the aim of detecting signals of an impending eruption as early as possible.

“We used to think that if we found a large amount of magma, that meant increased likelihood of eruption,” Pang said, “but now we are shifting perception that this is the baseline situation.”

The results suggest that an eruption does not completely drain a magma chamber, instead, it lets off some of the excess volume and pressure. The chamber can be slowly expanded and refilled over time due to gradual melting of the crust.

“If we had a better general understanding of where magma was, we could do a much better job of targeting and optimizing monitoring,” Abers said, noting that there are a “great many volcanoes that are sparsely monitored or have not been subject to intensive study.”

Plans are already in the works to expand the magma monitoring system and see if the Cascade discovery translates to other locations, including Alaska.

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story. 

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Journal

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-024-01630-y 

 

Aston University-led project finds simple ways to improve the wellbeing of pediatric critical care staff

Aston University

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• The Staff Wellbeing (SWell) project was carried out in conjunction with Birmingham Children’s Hospital and NHS England

• Paediatric critical care (PCC) staff experience high levels of moral distress, post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout

• Two simple, low-resource wellbeing sessions can be delivered by staff for staff without specialist training.

The Staff Wellbeing (SWell) project, led by Aston University researchers in collaboration with Birmingham Children’s Hospital and NHS England, has developed two simple, easy-to-deliver sessions to improve the wellbeing of staff in paediatric critical care (PCC) units in UK hospitals.

PCC staff are known to experience high levels of moral distress, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and burnout, but often feel little is offered to help them with their mental health. The SWell team at Aston University, led by Professor Rachel Shaw from the Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, realised following a literature review that there are no existing, evidence-based interventions specifically designed to improve PCC staff wellbeing. Initial work by SWell identified the ‘active ingredients’ likely to create successful intervention designs.

Together with a team from NHS England, the Aston University researchers set up the SWell Collaborative Project: Interventions for Staff Wellbeing in Paediatric Critical Care, in PCC units across England and Scotland. The aim of the project was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of implementing wellbeing interventions for staff working in PCC in UK hospitals. In total, 14 of the 28 UK PCC units were involved. One hundred and four intervention sessions were run, attended by 573 individuals.

Professor Shaw said:

“The significance of healthcare staff wellbeing was brought to the surface during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s a problem that has existed far longer than that. As far as we could see researchers had focused on measuring the extent of the problem rather than coming up with possible solutions. The SWell project was initiated to understand the challenges to wellbeing when working in paediatric critical care, to determine what staff in that high-pressure environment need, and what could actually work day-to-day to make a difference. Seeing PCC staff across half the paediatric critical care units in the UK show such enthusiasm and commitment to make the SWell interventions a success has been one of the proudest experiences in my academic career to date.”

The two wellbeing sessions tested are low-resource and low-intensity, and can be delivered by staff for staff without any specialist qualifications.

In the session ‘Wellbeing Images’, a small group of staff is shown images representing wellbeing, with a facilitated discussion using appreciative inquiry - a way of structuring discussions to create positive change in a system or situation by focusing on what works well, rather than what is wrong.

In the ‘Mad-Sad-Glad’ session, another small group reflective session, participants explore what makes them feel mad, sad and glad, and identify positive actions to resolve any issues raised.

The key ingredients in both sessions are social support – providing a psychologically safe space where staff can share their sensitive experiences and emotions without judgement, providing support for each other; self-belief – boosting staff’s self-confidence and ability to identify and express their emotions in response to work; and feedback and monitoring – encouraging staff to monitor what increases their stress, when they experience challenging emotions, and what might help boost their wellbeing in those scenarios.

Feedback from staff both running and participating in the SWell interventions was very positive, with high satisfaction and feasibility ratings. Participants like that the session facilitated open and honest discussions, provided opportunities to connect with colleagues and offered opportunities for generating solutions and support.

One hospital staff member responsible for delivering the sessions said:

“Our staff engaged really well, and it created a buzz around the unit with members of the team asking if they could be ‘swelled' on shift. A really positive experience and we are keeping it as part of our staff wellbeing package.”

The team concluded that even on busy PCC units, it is feasible to deliver SWell sessions. In addition, following the sessions, staff wellbeing and depression scores improved, indicating their likely positive impact on staff. Further evaluations are needed to determine whether positive changes can be sustained over time following the SWell sessions.

The work was funded by Aston University Proof of Concept Fund and NHS England.

Donna Austin, an advanced critical care practitioner at University Hospital Southampton paediatric intensive care unit, said:

“We were relatively new to implementing wellbeing initiatives, but we recognised the need for measures to be put in place for an improvement in staff wellbeing, as staff had described burnout, stress and poor mood. SWell has enabled our unit to become more acutely aware of the needs of the workforce and adapt what we deliver to suit the needs of the staff where possible. Staff morale and retention has been the greatest outcomes from us participating in the SWell study and ongoing SWell related interventions.”

Read the paper about the SWell interventions in the journal Nursing in Critical Care at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nicc.13228.

For more information about SWell, visit the website.

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Journal

Nursing in Critical Care

DOI

10.1111/nicc.13228 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Building evidence-based interventions to improve staff well-being in paediatric critical care using the behaviour change wheel

Article Publication Date

8-Jan-2025