• Hello, I'm ARSHAD!

    I am a Ph.D. scholar and an Industrial Designer.

     

    I am a product designer who has expertise in designing accessible interfaces and products. I am also a mechanical engineer and a graduate from IIT Delhi with a master's in Industrial Design. I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from the City University of Hong Kong.

    I make time to travel, meet new people and learn from their experiences. I capture portraits, make sketches and calligraphy notes. I ponder over weird ideas and try to observe my surroundings as much as possible.

  • My Projects

    FingerTalkie: Finger-worn Device for Accessing Audio Annotations On Tactile Diagrams

    A finger-worn device that uses discrete colors on a color-tagged tactile diagram for interactive audio labeling of the graphical elements. We designed a unique offset point-and-click technique that enables the bimanual exploration of the diagrams without hindering the tactile perception of the fingertips. FingerTalkie supports one-finger interaction and can work in any lighting conditions without calibration.FingerTalkie’s ease of use, support for two-hand exploration, and it's potential in improving the efficiency of comprehending tactile diagrams by replacing Braille labels.

    ThermEarhook: Investigating Spatial Thermal Haptic Feedback on the Auricular Skin Area

    This paper investigates the design and the evaluation of thermal haptic feedback on an earable form factor with multiple thermoelectric (i.e. Peltier) modules. We propose ThermEarhook, a wearable device that can provide hot and cold stimuli at multiple points on the auricular skin area. To investigate users’ thermal perception on the auricular area, we develop a series of ThermEarhook prototypes with 3, 4, and 5 Peltier modules. While most existing research utilized the constant level of haptic signal for different users, our pilot study with ThermEarhook shows that the auricular thermohaptic threshold varies across the feedback locations and the users.

    ThermalCane: Exploring Thermotactile Directional Cues on Cane-Grip for Non-Visual Navigation

    This paper presents the design and the evaluation of ThermalCane, a white-cane grip instrumented with multiple flexible thermal modules, to offer thermotactile directional cues for BVI users. We also conducted two thermotactile experiments on users’ perceptions of ThermalCane. Our first experiment with twelve BVI users reports on the selection of the thermal-module configuration, considering the BVI users’ perceptive accuracy and preference. We then evaluated the effectiveness of the four-module ThermalCane in walking with 6 BVI users, in comparison with vibrotactile cues.

  • Work Experience

    Mentor(Design Thinking) for Vernacular Innovation Program

    ATAL Innovation Mission, NITI Ayog, Govt. of India

    2021- Present

     

    The Vernacular Innovation Program is designed to lower the language barrier for vernacular innovators when learning design thinking and entrepreneurship, accessing markets, attracting investments, and influencing innovation policy. A Vernacular Task Force(VTF) in each language has been formed for creating the necessary resources as well as the ecosystem activities. The team will learn, contextualize, implement & translate the Design Thinking and entrepreneurship concept in 22 different languages.

    Project Scientist at Assistive Technologies Lab

    Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

    August 2015- June2017

    Tactile graphics: Developed affordable methods for color tactile printing and reading mechanisms for blind and visually impaired people.
    Onboard: System to make the public bus boarding easy for the visually impaired. I worked on designing and prototyping the handheld module used by the Blind and Visually Impaired people and also iterate the design according to the ergonomics and user feedback.

    Project Manager, Film Animation and Photography, Sustainable IIT Delhi​

    Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

    2013-2015

    Captured photographs, videos and organized exhibition of posters promoting sustainable development. Raised awareness about various issues related to waste management and climate change

  • Skills

    Skill sets that I've picked up over the years

    Prototyping skills

    • 3D Printing

    • Eye tracking

    • CNC machining

    • C++

    • Arduino

    • Processing

    Softwares

    • Autodesk Alias

    • Rhinoceros

    • CREO Parametric

    • SolidWorks

    • Sketch

    • Adobe XD

    Imaging and Video

    • Adobe Photoshop

    • Adobe Illustrator

    • Adobe Lightroom

    • Adobe InDesign

    • Adobe Premiere

  • Education

    City University of Hong Kong

    PH.D in Creative Media (2017- present)

    HCI; Haptics; Wearables; Accessibility

    Goldsmiths University of London

    Department of Computing (May 2019- October 2019)

    Visiting Researcher

    Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

    Masters in Design, Industrial Design (2013-2015)

    Product design, UI, UX

    University of Calicut, Kerala, India

    Bachelor of Technology, Mechanical Engineering(2008-2012)

    Machine design

  • Awards and Achievements

    • Outstanding Academic Performance Award: School of Graduate Studies, City University of Hong Kong. (August 2020)

    • Second place in NDIN COVID-19 Challenge: COVID information and alert mobile phone app. (March 2020)

    • Erasmus Mobility Grant: Goldsmiths University of London. (May 2019)

    • Outstanding Academic Performance Award: School of Graduate Studies, City University of Hong Kong. (July 2018)

    • Photo of the year award: Art and Abstract category in a competition by Yachting Partners International. (Sept 2016)

    • Best Design Award: Design and prototyping of patient drip volume control and alarm system at StanfordIndiaBiodesign in association with All India Institute of Medical Sciences. (2014)

    • Outstanding Academic Performance Award: School of Graduate Studies, City University of Hong Kong. (July 2019)

    • MHRD Scholarship: Two-year scholarship grant for excellent academic performance by Govt. of India (2013-2015)
  • Conference papers and posters

    1.  ​Arshad Nasser, Kai-Ning Keng, and Kening Zhu. 2020. ThermalCane: Exploring Thermotactile Directional Cues on Cane-Grip for NonVisual Navigation. In The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’20)
    2. Nasser, A., Chen, T., Liu, C., Zhu, K., & Rao, P. V. M. (2020, July). FingerTalkie: Designing a Low-Cost Finger-Worn Device for Interactive Audio Labeling of Tactile Diagrams. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 475-496). Springer, Cham.
    3. Nasser, A., Zhu, K. & Wiseman, S., Thermo-haptic Earable Display for the Hearing and Visually Impaired. Oct 2019, ASSETS'19: The 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, p. 630-632 (ASSETS - International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility).
    4. Nasser, A., Zhu, K., Designing a low-cost finger wearable audio-tactile device. Oct 2019, ASSETS'19: The 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, p. 691-693 (ASSETS - International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility)
    5. Nasser, A., Zhu, K., & Rao, P. V. M. ColorTact: A Finger Wearable Audio-tactile Device Using Customizable Color Tagging. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM International Joint Conference and 2018 International Symposium on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Wearable Computers (pp. 178-181). ACM.
    6. Chen, Wu, Han, Feng, Yue, Nasser, Zhu 2017. DupRobo : an interactive robotic platform for physical block-based autocompletion. Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences (SAME 2017) International Ambient Media Association (iAMEA) 2017. P. 48-50.
    7. PVM, M, Chanana, Nasser, Sapra 2015. Challenges in Development of Assistive Technologies for Unstructured Environments, Global Research, Education and Innovation in Assistive Technology (GREAT) Summit 

    Patents filed

    1. Human-interface device and a guiding apparatus for a visually impaired user including the human-interface device(us US 63/141,000)
    2. Finger wearable audio tactile device (1760/DEL/2015)

     

  • Reach Out

    Drop me a line so we can collaborate!

    Student Residence,City University of Hong Kong, 22 Cornwall Street