Daniel Killough

Hi, I'm Daniel !

I’m a PhD student at UW-Madison working with Yuhang Zhao studying human-computer interaction (HCI) in the madAbility Lab. My primary research interests include human-computer interaction (HCI), extended reality (AR / VR / MR / XR), accessibility (a11y), and AI-powered interactive systems. I am also interested in how computer graphics and immersive video technologies (livestreams, 360° cameras, projection mapping) can be applied to education, communication, esports, and healthcare. I am currently working on a major project using fine-tuned computer vision and large language models to help make virtual reality devices more accessible to blind people; a short animated GIF showing one part of this system can be found below.

Before Wisconsin, I earned my BS in CS from The University of Texas at Austin alongside certifications in Digital Arts & Media and immersive technologies. There, I worked with Amy Pavel on live video accessibility for screenreader users and Erin Reilly using augmented reality for young adult skin cancer prevention.

Outside of research, I test new products for HP HyperX and Dell Alienware. I also enjoy longboarding, backpacking, language learning, achievement hunting, moderating online communities, and tracking the music I listen to on last.fm.

Featured Projects

VRSight: AI-Driven Real-Time Scene Descriptions to Improve Virtual Reality Accessibility for Blind People

Daniel Killough, Justin Feng*, Zheng Xue "ZX" Ching*, Daniel Wang*, Rithvik Dyava*, Yapeng Tian, Yuhang Zhao

Using state-of-the-art object detection, zero-shot depth estimation, and multimodal large language models to identify virtual objects in social VR applications for blind and low vision people. *Authors 2-5 equally contributed to this work.

Understanding Mixed Reality Drift Tolerance

Daniel Killough*, Ruijia Chen*, Yuhang Zhao, Bilge Mutlu

Evaluating effects of mixed reality's tendency to drift objects on user perception and performance of task difficulty.

XR for All: Understanding Developer Perspectives on Accessibility Integration in Extended Reality

Daniel Killough, Tiger F. Ji, Kexin Zhang, Yaxin Hu, Yu Huang, Ruofei Du, Yuhang Zhao

Analyzing developer challenges on integrating a11y features into their XR apps. Covering a11y features for people with visual, cognitive, motor, and speech & hearing impairments.

Exploring Community-Driven Descriptions for
Making Livestreams Accessible

Daniel Killough, Amy Pavel

Making live video more accessible to blind users by crowdsourcing audio descriptions for real-time playback. Crowdsourced descriptions with 18 sighted community experts and evaluated with 9 blind participants.

GazePrompt: Enhancing Low Vision People's Reading Experience with Gaze-Aware Augmentations

Ru Wang, Zach Potter, Yun Ho, Daniel Killough, Linda Zeng, Sanbrita Mondal, Yuhang Zhao

System using eyetracking to augment passages of text, supporting low vision peoples' reading challenges (e.g., line switching and difficult word recognition).