Huiying Shen

Senior Programmer Analyst

PhD. Civil and Environmental Engineering
MS, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BS, Civil Engineering

Contact Information:

Email: hshen@ski.org

Office Phone: (415) 345-2141


2318 Fillmore Street

San Francisco, CA 94115

  • Collage of RERC staff mebers and RERC projects
    Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center
    The Center's research goal is to develop and apply new scientific knowledge and practical, cost-effective devices to better understand and address the real-world problems of blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind...
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  • 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...
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  • 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.
    Active
    Magic Map
    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,...
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  • Sample indoor sign showing automatic detection in yellow
    Completed
    Sign Finder
    This project seeks to develop a computer vision-based system that allows a visually impaired traveler to find and read informational signs, such as signs labeling office doors, streets, restrooms and...
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  • Zoomed-in view of appliance display partially obscured by glare
    Completed
    Display Reader
    The goal of the Display Reader project is to develop a computer vision system that runs on smartphones and tablets to enable blind and visually impaired persons to read appliance...
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  • Picture shows person pointing stylus to plastic model of a biological cell; webcam (not pictured) views model and stylus; computer, connected to webcam, announces "Nucleolus"
    Active
    CamIO
    CamIO (short for “Camera Input-Output”) is a system to make physical objects (such as documents, maps, devices and 3D models) accessible to blind and visually impaired persons, by providing real-time...
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  • Virtual aerial view of intersection area near a pedestrian's feet, reconstructed by Crosswatch algorithms
    Completed
    Crosswatch
    Crosswatch is a smartphone-based system developed for providing real-time guidance to blind and visually impaired travelers at traffic intersections. Using the smartphone's built-in camera and other sensors, Crosswatch is designed...
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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.

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

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

Shen, H. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Ivanchenko, V. . (2009). Figure-ground segmentation using factor graphs. Image and Vision Computing, 27, 854–863.

Ivanchenko, V. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2009). Staying in the crosswalk: A system for guiding visually impaired pedestrians at traffic intersections. Assistive Technology Research Series, 25, 69.

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2007). Dynamic quantization for belief propagation in sparse spaces. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 106, 47–58.

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2006). A fast algorithm for finding crosswalks using figure-ground segmentation. 2nd Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision, in Conjunction With ECCV, 5.

Coughlan, J. ., Manduchi, R. ., Mutsuzaki, M. ., & Shen, H. . (2005). Rapid and robust algorithms for detecting colour targets. 10th Congress of the International Colour Association, AIC Colour, 5, 959–962.

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.

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)

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)

Fusco, G. ., Shen, H. ., Murali, V. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). Determining a Blind Pedestrian’s Location and Orientation at Traffic Intersections. Computers Helping People With Special Needs, 427–432. Springer International Publishing.

Fusco, G. ., Shen, H. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2014). Self-Localization at Street Intersections. Computer and Robot Vision (CRV), 2014 Canadian Conference on, 40–47. IEEE.

Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2012). The crosswatch traffic intersection analyzer: a roadmap for the future. Computers Helping People With Special Needs, 25–28. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Sanketi, P. ., Shen, H. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2011). Localizing blurry and low-resolution text in natural images. Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 2011 IEEE Workshop on, 503–510. IEEE.

Ivanchenko, V. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2010). Real-time walk light detection with a mobile phone. Computers Helping People With Special Needs, 229–234. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. (Original work published 2010)

Ivanchenko, V. ., Coughlan, J. ., & Shen, H. . (2008). Detecting and locating crosswalks using a camera phone. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops, 2008. CVPRW’08. IEEE Computer Society Conference on, 1–8. IEEE. (Original work published 2008)

Shen, H. ., & Coughlan, J. . (2006). Finding text in natural scenes by figure-ground segmentation. Pattern Recognition, 2006. ICPR 2006. 18th International Conference on, 4, 113–118. IEEE.

Coughlan, J. ., Manduchi, R. ., & Shen, H. . (2006). Cell phone-based wayfinding for the visually impaired. 1st International Workshop on Mobile Vision. Presented at the 1st International Workshop on Mobile Vision.