The StreetLab facility is located in the Vision Institute at UPMC’s Mercy Pavilion and is housed within the Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. The StreetLab, a patient-centric research facility, was opened in 2024. It is under the co-direction of Dr. Rakié Cham and Dr. José-Alain Sahel. This facility is closely affiliated with the clinical team at the Vision Institute, as well as other laboratory facilities within the University of Pittsburgh, including the Human Movement and Balance Lab (Bioengineering), the Visual-Motor Neuroscience Laboratory (Ophthalmology), the DISCOVER Lab (Civil and Environmental Engineering), and collaborators within the Schools of Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Public Health. Additionally, it maintains close collaborations with the Streetlab company in Paris, which was founded in 2011 by Dr. Sahel and the Institute de la Vision as the first French center dedicated to scientific and medical research on vision.
The StreetLab in Pittsburgh is dedicated to the enhancement of function in people with vision impairments, thus promoting their independence and productivity in society. The StreetLab is specifically designed to achieve four purposes:
- Identify patient's needs and barriers to independent living at home, work, and in the community
- Develop new outcome metrics for evaluation training, devices, and functional performance
- Evaluate interventions and assistive technologies
- Develop new interventions and tools to improve the autonomy of people with vision loss
The 450 ft2 laboratory is equipped to be a multi-functional, modular research space. The entire space can be cleared for locomotion and virtual reality (VR) studies or be outfitted with tables and chairs needed for seated assessments (such as eye-hand coordination tasks). It features programmable overhead lighting, providing uniform luminance throughout the space and enabling control of brightness (lux level) and color (warm/cool).
A 12-camera optical motion capture system enables gold-standard biomechanics and kinematics assessments of movement and postural control. A full-body set of Inertial Measurement Units and wearable eye trackers enable kinematic and gaze analyses in or outside of a lab setting.
Areas of Research
The research scope of the StreetLab spans multiple disciplines and encompasses research questions ranging from understanding underlying mechanisms to evaluating the efficacy of interventions. The core StreetLab team is comprised primarily of Biomedical Engineers and brings together a multidisciplinary team of co-investigators to all projects including engineers, gerontologists, human factors specialists, neuroscientists, ophthalmologists, optometrists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, sleep experts, and statisticians.
The overarching goal of the StreetLab is to improve functionality and prolong independence in everyday life for people living with vision impairments. These types of tasks can be generally divided into two main research categories corresponding with patient-reported challenges:
- Activities of daily living (ADLs)
- Orientation and mobility (O &M)
ADLs encompass a series of self-care tasks that are essential for maintaining independence. Many ADLs, such as verbal 
communication and memory, can be performed with little to no visual input. However, other tasks (such as food preparation) are highly vision-dependent. “O&M is essential to safe and efficient wayfinding, which is the purposeful and directed movements necessary to reach a predetermined destination.” Orientation refers to the ability to establish and maintain spatial relationships, including the ability to move along routes and learn the layouts of new places.
Mobility refers to the ability to preview the path ahead and navigate safely through that path, including detection and avoidance of obstacles and other environmental features (e.g., curbs, stairs). As visual function decreases, so does the ability to effectively perform ADL and O&M tasks.
Street Lab Team
José-Alain Sahel, MD – Co-Director
Rakié Cham, PhD – Principal Investigator, Co-Director
Clive D’Souza, PhD – Principal Investigator – Driving Simulator
Michelle Harter, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow
Galen Holland, MS – Sr. Research Engineer, Lab Manager
Anita Lieb, MS – Sr. Research Coordinator
Ethan Hicks, BS – Research Engineer
Norah Stivala – Undergraduate Research Assistant