2026
Yeaminur Rahman; Juliano Franz; Rezwana Mahfuza; Sue Molloy; Derek Reilly
Adapting Eco-Driving Feedback and Historical Visualization for Vessel Dashboards Proceedings Article Forthcoming
In: Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE 29th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), IEEE, Forthcoming.
BibTeX | Tags: design, feedforward, geospatial analytics, itinerary planning, mobile, navigation, training, visualization
@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {Adapting Eco-Driving Feedback and Historical Visualization for Vessel Dashboards},
author = {Yeaminur Rahman and Juliano Franz and Rezwana Mahfuza and Sue Molloy and Derek Reilly},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-09-07},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE 29th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC)},
publisher = {IEEE},
keywords = {design, feedforward, geospatial analytics, itinerary planning, mobile, navigation, training, visualization},
pubstate = {forthcoming},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
2025
Yeaminur Rahman
Adapting Eco-Driving Feedback and Historical Visualization for Vessel Dashboards Masters Thesis
2025.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: behaviour change, climate, dashboard, geospatial analytics, mobile, navigation, peripheral vision, simulation, training, virtual environment, visualization, wayfinding
@mastersthesis{nokey,
title = {Adapting Eco-Driving Feedback and Historical Visualization for Vessel Dashboards},
author = {Yeaminur Rahman},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10222/85531},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-11-25},
urldate = {2025-11-25},
abstract = {Maritime navigation is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. While large-scale cargo shipping is the major contributor, smaller maritime operations, including patrolling, fishing, public transit, and recreation, present unique challenges and opportunities for power management. Fuel consumption, power conversion, and environmental data can permit environmentally conscious and cost-effective decision-making when driving a boat. To achieve this, we need to understand how best to integrate such data into boat dashboard interfaces. In this work, we design an Eco Dashboard inspired by eco-driving feedback dashboards in the automotive industry, as well as a variant of the Eco Dashboard that additionally visualizes historical route and fuel consumption data (Eco + Historical Dashboard). In an experimental simulation (N = 30) involving 12 experienced mariners and 18 novices, we compared both interfaces with a typical boat dashboard that presented fuel and speed. Our findings suggest that dashboards incorporating historical data, alongside eco-driving features, improve fuel efficiency and decision-making, particularly for non-experienced users. The Eco Dashboard supported real-time adjustments during complex navigation, whereas the Eco + Historical Dashboard enhanced route planning and confidence in longer-term decisions. Participants also reported greater confidence and reduced cognitive load when using these systems. These results provide valuable insights for the future design of maritime dashboard systems, offering a pathway to more effective and environmentally conscious navigation tools.},
keywords = {behaviour change, climate, dashboard, geospatial analytics, mobile, navigation, peripheral vision, simulation, training, virtual environment, visualization, wayfinding},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {mastersthesis}
}
Maritime navigation is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. While large-scale cargo shipping is the major contributor, smaller maritime operations, including patrolling, fishing, public transit, and recreation, present unique challenges and opportunities for power management. Fuel consumption, power conversion, and environmental data can permit environmentally conscious and cost-effective decision-making when driving a boat. To achieve this, we need to understand how best to integrate such data into boat dashboard interfaces. In this work, we design an Eco Dashboard inspired by eco-driving feedback dashboards in the automotive industry, as well as a variant of the Eco Dashboard that additionally visualizes historical route and fuel consumption data (Eco + Historical Dashboard). In an experimental simulation (N = 30) involving 12 experienced mariners and 18 novices, we compared both interfaces with a typical boat dashboard that presented fuel and speed. Our findings suggest that dashboards incorporating historical data, alongside eco-driving features, improve fuel efficiency and decision-making, particularly for non-experienced users. The Eco Dashboard supported real-time adjustments during complex navigation, whereas the Eco + Historical Dashboard enhanced route planning and confidence in longer-term decisions. Participants also reported greater confidence and reduced cognitive load when using these systems. These results provide valuable insights for the future design of maritime dashboard systems, offering a pathway to more effective and environmentally conscious navigation tools.
Aayush Shrestha; Joseph Malloch
Virtual Worlds Beyond Sight: Designing and Evaluating an Audio-Haptic System for Non-Visual VR Exploration Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025), pp. 1–19, ACM, 2025.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: assistive technology, haptics, navigation, spatial audio, virtual environment, VR
@inproceedings{Shrestha2025,
title = {Virtual Worlds Beyond Sight: Designing and Evaluating an Audio-Haptic System for Non-Visual VR Exploration},
author = {Aayush Shrestha and Joseph Malloch},
url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713400},
doi = {10.1145/3706598.371340},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-04-26},
urldate = {2025-04-26},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025)},
number = {812},
pages = {1--19},
publisher = {ACM},
abstract = {Contemporary research in Virtual Reality for users who are visually impaired often employs navigation and interaction modalities that are either non-conventional, constrained by physical spaces, or both. We designed and examined a hapto-acoustic VR system that mitigates this by enabling non-visual exploration of large virtual environments using white cane simulation and walk-in place locomotion. The system features a complex urban cityscape incorporating a physical cane prototype coupled with a virtual cane for rendering surface textures, and an omnidirectional slide mill for navigation. In addition, spatialized audio is rendered based on the progression of sound through the geometry around the user. A study involving twenty sighted participants evaluated the system through three formative tasks while blindfolded to simulate absolute blindness. Participants were highly successful in completing all the tasks while effectively navigating through the environment. Our work highlights the potential for accessible, non-visual VR experiences, achievable even with minimal training and little prior exposure to VR.},
keywords = {assistive technology, haptics, navigation, spatial audio, virtual environment, VR},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Contemporary research in Virtual Reality for users who are visually impaired often employs navigation and interaction modalities that are either non-conventional, constrained by physical spaces, or both. We designed and examined a hapto-acoustic VR system that mitigates this by enabling non-visual exploration of large virtual environments using white cane simulation and walk-in place locomotion. The system features a complex urban cityscape incorporating a physical cane prototype coupled with a virtual cane for rendering surface textures, and an omnidirectional slide mill for navigation. In addition, spatialized audio is rendered based on the progression of sound through the geometry around the user. A study involving twenty sighted participants evaluated the system through three formative tasks while blindfolded to simulate absolute blindness. Participants were highly successful in completing all the tasks while effectively navigating through the environment. Our work highlights the potential for accessible, non-visual VR experiences, achievable even with minimal training and little prior exposure to VR.
2024
Aayush Shrestha
Virtual Worlds Beyond Sight: Designing and Evaluating an Audio-Haptic System for Non-Visual VR Exploration Masters Thesis
Dalhousie University, 2024.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: assistive technology, haptics, navigation, spatial audio, VR
@mastersthesis{Shrestha2024,
title = {Virtual Worlds Beyond Sight: Designing and Evaluating an Audio-Haptic System for Non-Visual VR Exploration},
author = {Aayush Shrestha},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-08-09},
school = {Dalhousie University},
abstract = {Virtual Reality (VR), predominantly focusing on visuospatial renderings in its contemporary approach, has created a conservative narrative, making VR solely analogous to a mediated visual experience. While accessibility is included in the developmental phase of commercial VR applications, it is often considered an add-on, resulting in sub-par virtual experiences that often exclude visually impaired users. This research addresses these limitations by designing a hapto-acoustic VR system that leverages spatial audio and haptic feedback for sensory substitution of visual dominance in VR. A large-scale urban virtual environment (VE) was created using the Unity Game Engine, incorporating a physical cane prototype coupled with a virtual cane for interaction and an omnidirectional slide mill for navigation. A user study with 20 normally sighted participants evaluated and compared the system's effectiveness in texture differentiation and navigation tasks under two conditions: with visual cues and exclusively through audio-haptic feedback. The study results indicated that even with minimal training and limited prior VR experience, participants could navigate the environment effectively in non-visual conditions, though at the cost of increased cognitive load and error rates compared to visual conditions. The evaluation highlights the necessity for improved feedback mechanisms and suggests further validation with visually impaired users. The overall research contributes to the development of accessible VR systems through a novel white cane prototype, realistic spatial audio effects and a comprehensive evaluation demonstrating the system's potential in aiding non-visual navigation in a complex, large-scale VE while also engendering empathetic literacy among sighted users.},
keywords = {assistive technology, haptics, navigation, spatial audio, VR},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {mastersthesis}
}
Virtual Reality (VR), predominantly focusing on visuospatial renderings in its contemporary approach, has created a conservative narrative, making VR solely analogous to a mediated visual experience. While accessibility is included in the developmental phase of commercial VR applications, it is often considered an add-on, resulting in sub-par virtual experiences that often exclude visually impaired users. This research addresses these limitations by designing a hapto-acoustic VR system that leverages spatial audio and haptic feedback for sensory substitution of visual dominance in VR. A large-scale urban virtual environment (VE) was created using the Unity Game Engine, incorporating a physical cane prototype coupled with a virtual cane for interaction and an omnidirectional slide mill for navigation. A user study with 20 normally sighted participants evaluated and compared the system's effectiveness in texture differentiation and navigation tasks under two conditions: with visual cues and exclusively through audio-haptic feedback. The study results indicated that even with minimal training and limited prior VR experience, participants could navigate the environment effectively in non-visual conditions, though at the cost of increased cognitive load and error rates compared to visual conditions. The evaluation highlights the necessity for improved feedback mechanisms and suggests further validation with visually impaired users. The overall research contributes to the development of accessible VR systems through a novel white cane prototype, realistic spatial audio effects and a comprehensive evaluation demonstrating the system's potential in aiding non-visual navigation in a complex, large-scale VE while also engendering empathetic literacy among sighted users.