Advisory Committee Chair
Ragib Hasan
Advisory Committee Members
Tanveer Islam
Sadharth Kumar
David Schwebel
Da Yan
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2023
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
The personal safety of pedestrians has increasingly been recognized as a global concern, with a multitude of contributing elements. These include distractions such as smart and wearable device usage, the absence of human-centric systems, infrastructure inadequacies, and traffic regulation. Individuals are increasingly experiencing physical harm as a consequence of reduced attention to their immediate environment, thereby compromising their personal safety. This phenomenon is becoming more prevalent in this fast-paced, technology-driven world, especially among the young. The proliferation of digital devices, such as smartphones and wearable technology, has led to a significant shift in people’s focus from their physical surroundings to the digital domain. This shift often results in a need for more awareness of potential hazards in their environment, from simple obstacles on the sidewalk to moving vehicles on the road. In addition, recent advancements in Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology have transformed the traffic system into a shared space. The shared traffic system replaces casual driver-pedestrian interactions with human-machine communication. For instance, there will no longer be human signals for right-of-way negotiations, eye contact, or hand gestures. Instead, pedestrians will communicate through an external Human Machine Interface (eHMI). Interacting with vehicles imposes a cognitive load on pedestrians, limiting their capacity to concentrate on the street. Although active research continues in the AV industry on pedestrian tracking, smart signaling, and vehicle-to-pedestrian communication, few studies focus on pedestrians’ perceptions and safety measures. This dissertation focuses on the challenges and opportunities of personal safety application with privacy preservation. We investigate the multimodal architectural framework that enables the integration of personal safety entities, which includes cognitive iii amplification, intelligent infrastructure, vehicle-pedestrian communication, and urban sensing technologies. These systems are designed to serve as an interactive platform that facilitates communication and coordination between pedestrians, shared traffic, and the city’s infrastructure while ensuring individual privacy. In addition, we investigate the safety ecosystem that provides security and well-being information through urban sensing-as-a-service.
Recommended Citation
Hasan, Raiful, "Secure and Multimodal Personal Safety in Smart Cities with Applications in Interactions and Privacy Preservation for Pedestrians" (2023). All ETDs from UAB. 436.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/436