Mutual avoidance between young and older adults when passing through an aperture

The ability to perceive the motion of approaching person and to make appropriate adjustments to avoid collisions is an essential component of safe locomotion through the environment. The proposed project will investigate young and older adults’ collision avoidance behaviours with an approaching young adult in order to understand the visual information used to accomplish the task. The proposed research project will have two individuals approach an open doorway from opposite sides and pass through without colliding with each other. Both individuals’ movements will be tracked as they approach and pass through the doorway. The project will determine whether individuals use optical information, such as Time-to-Contact (TTC), to determine who will pass through the doorway first and avoid colliding with the other individual. TTC is amount of time that remains before each individual will reach the doorway and if used, will not only determine the arriving order, but also preserve this crossing order. It is believed that young adults will be in-tune with this optical information and use it to guide their actions whereas older adults may not use this information.

Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Cinelli

Student:

Partner:

Université de Haute Bretagne Rennes 2

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Wilfrid Laurier University

Program: