MUVR – the Mobile Urban Video Recording System. If you’ve heard about Google Streetview, it is very similar. The big difference is that the images MUVR collects will NOT be posted on the internet.

After we collect the video, we bring it back to the CRUNCH laboratory at McMaster and convert the images into scores summarizing neighbourhood features. These scores are then used to examine their relationship to important outcomes like healthy child development.

Data collections occurs Monday to Friday, between 9 AM and 3 PM, from May to October, when weather permits.

Confidentiality

For the most part, with the resolution of our cameras, we will not be able to identify individuals that may be captured on the video. Still, all video records will be kept private on a secure, password-protected computer that is in a locked room, which is in a key-card access only laboratory. Access will only be available to the research team.

Occasionally we will make presentations or publish some images publicly (i.e. for educational purposes, conference presentations, publications, etc.), and when we do that, we will maintain people’s confidentiality by blurring out individual face, license plates and other unique features.         

Although we will protect peoples’ privacy as outlined above, if legal authorities request specific video data as evidence of a serious crime, we may be required to reveal it.

Benefits of the Research

What we learn in this research will help local and regional planning, and help to develop what our city needs to improve the quality of life and well-being of Hamilton.

We expect our findings will be important to governments, business associations, community groups and residents who seek to make their neighbourhoods the best places to live that they can be. We have relationships with many such groups, including Hamilton’s Neighbourhood Action Strategy, and we will make sure our findings are distributed widely.

This project is the first of its kind to be conducted in Canada, and one of the first in the world.

Ethical Review

This study has been reviewed and cleared by the McMaster Research Ethics Board.

If you have concerns or questions about privacy, data security or other related aspects of this study, please contact the McMaster Research Ethics Board Secretariat. 

Phone:(905) 525-9140 Ext.23142

Email: ethicsoffice@mcmaster.ca

Mail:

c/o Research Office for Administrative Development and Support

McMaster University

1280 Main St West

 

About the Researcher

Thank you for your interest in our research. It is being conducted by Dr. James Dunn, a Professor in the Department of Health, Aging & Society at McMaster University.

Dr. Dunn has been studying the impacts of housing and neighbourhoods on health and child development for 20 years.

He is closely involved in the evaluation of Hamilton’s Neighbouhood Action Strategy and has a long history of collaborating with governments, not-for-profit organizations and communities.

If you have any questions about this study, please contact:

1-8445-CRUNCH

(1-844-527-8624)