Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program – Meeting 4

On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its fourth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was convened and led once again by Ester Fuchs, Chief Social Impact Officer of the CS3 and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. Topics covered this week included applying modeling and simulation techniques to improving streetscape safety, as well as expanding the opportunities for dialogue between community members and technologists to better guide the progress of the initiative.

After opening remarks by Ester Fuchs, Sharon Di, an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics affiliated with Columbia University, discussed the potential in improving urban traffic management systems using “digital twins” of locations within the city. Prof. Di began by discussing the state of current urban traffic management systems, including an overview of conventional induction loop and camera-based approaches. Said conventional approaches are limited in precision and predictive ability. By comparison, future approaches could include the use of a “digital twin:” a replica of a location of interest, such as an intersection or subway station, that has been virtually reconstructed. Objects detected in the real world could be brought into the simulation, and their vectors of motion could be more accurately modeled and predicted. This has promising implications for accident avoidance and accessibility for impaired persons, particularly when combined with low-latency compute technologies.

“Digital twins” would also have applications in discovering new ways to improve the accessibility of city locations. They would allow the more precise study of mobility patterns within twinned locations, providing crucial data for both urban planners and researchers involved in the development of assistive technologies. The technology involved in their creation could also help with modeling driving patterns, allowing those displaying symptoms of dementia and similar disorders to be contacted and provided with appropriate care as soon as possible. These applications grow in importance as the average age of the New York City population continues to trend upwards.

Furthermore, “digital twins” could help protect the privacy of individuals benefiting from the technology, as they could be produced using purely sensor-based implementations, instead of relying on high-resolution camera captures.

Following Professor Di’s presentation, CPRs posed questions primarily focused on technological accuracy, such as “How does this project consider animals and jaywalkers?” and “How will you address people illegally crossing the road?” It was clarified that the project exclusively focuses on humans, and addressing specific cases poses an ongoing challenge, balancing safety and efficiency.

The second presentation, delivered by Brian Smith, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, concerned itself less with any one particular technological innovation, but rather focused on how to approach technology design, and encouraged the CPRs to more deeply engage and exchange proactively with the technologists working on the CS3 project. This presentation broadly outlined the “Three Needs” of technology design: inclusion, community, and information. “Inclusion” includes ensuring the accessibility and useability of technology, including providing real benefit to the people who interact with it. Relaying information from computers to people, regardless of ability, is an important aspect of this tenet. “Community” refers to the ability of technology to facilitate interpersonal interaction, particularly in in-person settings. One example given was ongoing research into using augmented reality to move experiences along the streetscape into learning about historic locations. Another example included communal entertainment screens at city bus stop shelters. Finally, “information” regarding some of the novel ways of moving information from computers to people in a more general sense than what was mentioned in “inclusion.” For instance, using the LinkNYC kiosks, city employees are able to relay information regarding weather, history, and community events in a highly localized fashion and in real time.

Following the presentation, CPRs inquired about the technical capability of detecting errant behavior, including scenarios like a car swerving towards people. The researchers explained that the computers only detect behaviors that have come to be learned as errant. Regarding coordination with accessibility consultants and disabled individuals, Prof Smith emphasized his history of working in close relationships with blind communities, specifically, where many tech opportunities exist to support individuals and communities with different lived experiences.

The meeting then moved into breakout sessions, where CPRs shared ideas, feelings and questions about technological advances in cities, such as sensors and AR. They expressed the need for increased accessibility for the visually impaired, flexibility, and responsiveness to human needs, and encouraged collaboration with tech engineers. As for practical problems on the streetscape that might be addressed through the presented research, specific suggestions from CPRs focused on safety improvements, including detecting and warning against oncoming poor/unsafe driving habits, informing the public about street hazards, and identifying areas for infrastructure improvement, and a desire to see AR incorporated into Harlem’s cultural streetscape to specifically recall historical sites and figures that once existed throughout the neighborhood that should remain actively accessible via technology among the current streetscape so as never to be forgotten.

CPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.