Drive by Age

Still need to confirm client

Contact: Michael Elliott, JPMorgan <Michael.Elliott@jpmorgan.com>

It is often difficult for young people on the roads to remember that older people (such as the Group Project Coordinators) see the world very differently - sensitivity to light decreases dramatically, while reaction times, awareness of peripheral movement, distance vision, hearing and fine motor control can also change a great deal. Your task is to make a driving simulator that allows a user to drop through from Google Maps into an alternative interactive Street View as experienced by an older person driving a car. You should simulate particularly challenging situations such as night-time with cyclists having dark clothes and no lights. It should be possible to see any neighbourhood in the UK, from the perspective of a wide range of different ages, and with the experience as realistic as possible. You could even control the simulation on the basis of local demographic data, so that popular retirement destinations can be seen from the point of view of their residents.

Following needs to be modified slightly, to take into account granularity of available dataset

Michael says: "I don't know that we have street by street data, but let me find out."

Different areas of the UK, or of cities like Cambridge, have wide-ranging differences in average age. Your task is to help people understand these differences by changing the appearance of an online map and/or street view, to simulate the issues faced by the people who live there. You can start with an interface allowing the user to drive through Open Streetmap or Google Maps, but modify local parts to reflect the age of people who live in that area. For example, the appearance of text and graphics might be modified to simulate visual capability of older users, navigation controls might simulate fine motor control issues (shaking hands, etc), and street scenes modified to show effects of reduced sensitivity to light in night driving. The resulting interactive system can be used both to better understand age distribution, and to help younger users appreciate the needs of the older population in particular areas.