Efficacy of virtual reality in pedestrian safety research.
Advances in virtual reality technology present new opportunities for human factors research in areas that are dangerous, difficult, or expensive to study in the real world. The authors developed a new pedestrian simulator using the HTC Vive head mounted display and Unity software. Pedestrian head position and orientation were tracked as participants attempted to safely cross a virtual signalized intersection (5.5 m). In 10% of 60 trials, a vehicle violated the traffic signal and in 10.84% of these trials, a collision between the vehicle and the pedestrian was observed. Approximately 11% of the participants experienced simulator sickness and withdrew from the study. Objective measures, including the average walking speed, indicate that participant behavior in VR matches published real world norms. Subjective responses indicate that the virtual environment was realistic and engaging. Overall, the study results confirm the effectiveness of the new virtual reality technology for research on full motion tasks.
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Mississippi State University, PO Box 9542, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA. Electronic address: sd1278@msstate.edu.
Shuchisnigdha
S
Deb
Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, Mississippi State University, PO Box 5405, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA.
Daniel W
DW
Carruth
Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, Mississippi State University, PO Box 5405, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA.
Richard
R
Sween
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Mississippi State University, PO Box 9542, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA.
Lesley
L
Strawderman
Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, Mississippi State University, PO Box 5405, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA.
Teena M
TM
Garrison
D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D006804:Ergonomics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006257:Head; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000069636:Pedestrians; D012107:Research Design; D012449:Safety; D000076142:Virtual Reality; D016138:Walking; D000076251:Wearable Electronic Devices; D055815:Young Adult
Head-tracking technology; Pedestrian simulator; User experience