Navigation and Pathfinding while multi-tasking on smart mobile devices [Self-Funded Students Only]

Research shows that there has been an increase in number of pedestrians, especially young people, getting injured while using mobile phones on-the-go. This finding is proportional to the increase in number of drivers getting injured while using mobile devices on-the-wheel. This has led to a number of studies examining cognitive resources (attention, memory) as well as physiological changes (gait posture, speed) and the effects of using a mobile device (texting, talking) while walking.

Although laboratory-based studies have demonstrated that young adults are relatively resilient to dual-task interference during walking, emerging research suggests that the safety of young adults may be compromised during distracted walking in the real world, especially when walking while texting or talking on a smartphone.

It is presently not known how young adults prioritise their attention during texting and walking. To accurately interpret dual-task interference it is imperative to measure single and dual-task performance in both tasks. PhD candidate(s) will use eye-trackers and built-in sensors on smartphones to track how people change their navigation strategies when using phones.

PhD candidate(s) should demonstrate strong coding skills in Android, python, interest in eye-tracking, machine learning, data analysis and statistics.

Supervisory team:
Dr Parisa Eslambolchilar (School of Computer Science and Informatics), [Email Address Removed]
Dr Alexia Zoumpoulaki (School of Computer Science and Informatics),
[Email Address Removed]