James Coughlan

Senior Scientist
Director: Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center

Ph.D.

The goal of our laboratory is to develop and test assistive technology for blind and visually impaired persons that is enabled by computer vision and other sensor technologies.

Download CV

Coughlan Lab
Contact Information:

Email: coughlan@ski.org

Office Phone: (415) 345-2146


2318 Fillmore Street

San Francisco, CA 94115

Links:

Link to Google Scholar

Publications

  • Journal Articles
  • Conference Papers
  • Presentations/Posters
  • Other Publications
No Thumbnail Found
No Thumbnail Found

Projects

CamIO Hands Close-up photo showing person pointing right index finger to Ireland on a map of the British Isles with other fingers closed.

CamIO Hands

This project builds on the CamIO project to provide point-and-tap interactions allowing a user to acquire detailed information about tactile graphics and 3D models. The interface uses an iPhone’s depth and color cameras to track the user’s hands while they

Read More
Talking Signs Talking Signs

Talking Signs

Completed

Created by William Loughborough in 1979, Talking Lights was a system of infrared transmitters and receivers allowing blind and visually impaired travelers to quickly and easily “read signs” at a distance.

Read More
Magic Map Photo of Magic Map, a bronze scale map of the Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto. The bronze map is bordered by panels on both sides with descriptions of the map.

Magic Map

Active

The Magic Map is an interactive 3D map installed at the Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto, California. It consists of a 1/100 scale 3D bronze representation of the playground, which includes over seventy play structures organized into multiple play

Read More
Audiom Image of an audio map

Audiom

Active

Audiom is a tool that allows blind and visually impaired individuals to view maps completely in audio. It is a web component and can be embedded into any webpage, similar to Google Maps. It allows non-visual use of route, landmark,

Read More

Labs

Coughlan Lab L to R: Huiying Shen, Ali Cheraghi, Brandon Biggs, James Coughlan, Charity Pitcher-Cooper, Giovanni Fusco

Coughlan Lab

The goal of our laboratory is to develop and test assistive technology for blind and visually impaired persons that is enabled by computer vision and other sensor technologies.

Read More

Centers

Collaborators

  • Internal
  • External

Trainees

  • Current
  • Past
  • Verghese Lab
    Verghese Lab
    Principal Investigator:
    Our laboratory studies the mechanisms of healthy vision and action, as well as the basis of attention and visual adaptation […]
    Read More

Coughlan, J. ., & Manduchi, R. . (2009). A mobile phone wayfinding system for visually impaired users. Assistive Technology Research Series, 25, 849.

Shen, H. ., Chan, K.-Y. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Brabyn, J. . (2008). A mobile phone system to find crosswalks for visually impaired pedestrians. Technology and Disability, 20, 217–224.

Crabb, R. ., Cheraghi, S. A., & Coughlan, J. . (2023). A Lightweight Approach to Localization for Blind and Visually Impaired Travelers. Sensors, 23(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052701 (Original work published 2023)

Pitcher-Cooper, C. ., Seth, M. ., Kao, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Yoon, I. . (2023). You Described, We Archived: A Rich Audio Description Dataset. Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 11. (Original work published 2023)

Hong, J. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2023). VR Training to Facilitate Blind Photography for Navigation. Journal On Technology And Persons With Disabilities. (Original work published 2023)

Biggs, B. ., Pitcher-Cooper, C. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2022). Getting in Touch with Tactile Map Automated Production: Evaluating Impact and Areas for Improvement.Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 10. (Original work published 2022)

Biggs, B. ., Agbaroji, H. ., Toth, C. ., Stockman, T. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Walker, B. . (2024). Co-Designing Auditory Navigation Solutions for Traveling as a Blind Individual During The COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 14(1). (Original work published 2024)

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2013). Crosswatch: a system for providing guidance to visually impaired travelers at traffic intersections. Journal of Assistive Technologies, 7.

Tekin, E. ., Vásquez, D. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2013). S-K Smartphone Barcode Reader for the Blind. Journal on Technology and Persons With Disabilities, 1.

Tekin, E. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Simon, H. J. (2013). Improving speech enhancement algorithms by incorporating visual information. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134, 4237–4237.

Manduchi, R. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2012). (Computer) vision without sight. Communications of the ACM, 55, 96–104.

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2010). An Embarrassingly Simple Speed-Up of Belief Propagation with Robust Potentials. ArXiv Preprint arXiv:1010.0012. arXiv:1010.0012

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2007). Terrain Analysis for Blind Wheelchair Users: Computer Vision Algorithms for Finding Curbs and other Negative Obstacles. CVHI. Presented at the CVHI.

Tekin, E. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2011). Real-time detection and reading of LED/LCD displays for visually impaired persons. Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 2011 IEEE Workshop on, 491–496. IEEE.

Biggs, B. ., Toth, C. ., Stockman, T. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Walker, B. N. (2022). Evaluation of a Non-Visual Auditory Choropleth and Travel Map Viewer. International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) 2022. Presented at the International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) 2022. Virtual. Retrieved from PMCID: PMC10010675 (Original work published 2022)

Coughlan, J. ., Biggs, B. ., & Shen, H. . (2021). Point and Listen: Bringing a 3D Map to Life with Audio-Based AR. 6th Annual Frameless XR Symposium. Presented at the 6th Annual Frameless XR Symposium. (Original work published 2021)

Biggs, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Coppin, P. . (2021). Design and evaluation of an interactive 3D map. RESNA 2021 Conference. Presented at the RESNA 2021 Conference. (Original work published 2021)

Fusco, G. ., Cheraghi, S. A., Neat, L. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2020). An Indoor Navigation App using Computer Vision and Sign Recognition. 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs. Presented at the 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. (Original work published 2020)

Coughlan, J. ., Biggs, B. ., Rivière, M.-A. ., & Shen, H. . (2020). An Audio-Based 3D Spatial Guidance AR System for Blind Users. 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs. Presented at the 17th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. (Original work published 2020)

Biggs, B. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Coppin, P. . (2019). Design and Evaluation of an Audio Game-Inspired Auditory Map Interface. The 25th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2019). Presented at the The 25th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2019). Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. (Original work published 2019)

Fusco, G. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2018). Indoor Localization using Computer Vision and Visual-Inertial Odometry. International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs (ICCHP ’18). Presented at the International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP ’18). Linz, Austria. (Original work published 2018)

Hong, J. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2024). Enhancing Walk-Light Detector Usage for the Visually Impaired: A Comparison of VR Exploration and Verbal Instructions. Web4All 2024. Presented at the Web4All 2024. Singapore. (Original work published 2024)

Fusco, G. ., Tekin, E. ., Ladner, R. E., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). Using Computer Vision to Access Appliance Displays. ASSETS. Presented at the ASSETS. (Original work published 2014)

Manduchi, R. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). The last meter: blind visual guidance to a target. Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 3113–3122. ACM.

Fusco, G. ., Tekin, E. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2016). Sign Finder Application – Technical Report.

Shen, H. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2012). Towards a real-time system for finding and reading signs for visually impaired users. In Computers Helping People with Special Needs (pp. 41–47). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. (Original work published 2012)

Coughlan, J. . (2012). Markov random fields and techniques for performing inference with them.

Coughlan, J. . (2011). Mechanisms for propagating surface information in 3-D reconstruction. In C. W. Tyler (Ed.), Computer Vision: From Surfaces to 3D Objects. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press.

Coughlan, J. . (2010). Maximum Entropy Distributions and Their Relationship to Maximum Likelihood.

Coughlan, J. . (2009). Basic 3D Geometry for One and Two Cameras.

Coughlan, J. . (2009). A Tutorial Introduction to Belief Propagation.

Manduchi, R. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Ivanchenko, V. . (2008). Search strategies of visually impaired persons using a camera phone wayfinding system. In Computers Helping People with Special Needs (pp. 1135–1140). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Manduchi, R. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2008). Portable and mobile systems in assistive technology. In Computers helping people with special needs (pp. 1078–1080). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Shen, H. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2007). Grouping using factor graphs: an approach for finding text with a camera phone. In Graph-Based Representations in Pattern Recognition (pp. 394–403). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Coughlan, J. ., Manduchi, R. ., & Shen, H. . (2006). Computer vision-based terrain sensors for blind wheelchair users. In Computers Helping People with Special Needs (pp. 1294–1297). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Coughlan, J. ., & Ferreira, S. J. (2002). Finding deformable shapes using loopy belief propagation. In Computer Vision—ECCV 2002 (pp. 453–468). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.