COSYS-PICS-L, Univ Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, F-78000, Versailles, France.
TS2-LESCOT, Univ Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, Univ Lyon, F-69675, Lyon, France.
Accid Anal Prev. 2021 Mar;152:106004. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.106004. Epub 2021 Feb 1.
Interactive pedestrian simulators have become a valuable research tool for investigating street-crossing behavior and developing solutions for improving pedestrian safety. There are two main kinds of pedestrian simulators: one uses a technology based on rear-projection screens (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, or CAVE), the other a head-mounted display (HMD). These devices are used indiscriminately, regardless of the research objective, and it is not yet known whether they are equally effective for studying street crossing. The present study was aimed at comparing the street crossing behavior and subjective evaluations of younger and older adult pedestrians when they are using a CAVE-like or HMD-based (HTC Vive Pro) pedestrian simulator. Thirty younger adults and 25 older adults performed 36 street-crossing trials (combining different speeds, two-way traffic conditions, and gap sizes) on each of the two types of simulators. The results indicated that participants in the HMD condition crossed the street significantly more often (58.6 %) than in the CAVE condition (42.44%) and had shorter safety margins. The most striking difference pertained to crossing initiation, which occurred considerably earlier (1.78 s) in the HMD condition than in the CAVE condition. Synchronization of crossing initiation with oncoming traffic was not as good in the CAVE condition because visual information in front of the pedestrian was missing due to the absence of ground projection. In both simulators, older adults caused more collisions than did younger ones, had shorter safety margins, and a slower crossing speed. Hence, the HMD reproduced classical age-related differences in most street-crossing behaviors already found on the CAVE. Usually observed speed effects were also found for both simulators. Neither cybersickness nor any adverse effects on stereoacuity or postural balance were found for either simulator. The HMD produced a higher level of presence and preference than the CAVE did. These findings provide evidence that HMDs have a clear potential for studying pedestrian behaviour.
交互式行人模拟器已成为研究过街行为和开发提高行人安全解决方案的宝贵研究工具。有两种主要的行人模拟器：一种使用基于背投屏幕的技术（洞穴自动虚拟环境或 CAVE），另一种使用头戴式显示器（HMD）。这些设备被不加区分地使用，而不管研究目标是什么，目前尚不清楚它们在研究过街行为方面是否同样有效。本研究旨在比较年轻和年长的成年行人在使用类似 CAVE 或基于 HMD（HTC Vive Pro）的行人模拟器时的过街行为和主观评价。30 名年轻成年人和 25 名年长成年人在两种类型的模拟器上分别进行了 36 次过街试验（结合不同的速度、双向交通条件和间隙大小）。结果表明，参与者在 HMD 条件下过街的频率明显高于 CAVE 条件（58.6%对 42.44%），且安全裕度更小。最显著的差异涉及到过街的启动，HMD 条件下的启动时间明显早于 CAVE 条件（1.78 秒）。由于行人前方缺少地面投影，CAVE 条件下视觉信息缺失，导致过街启动与迎面而来的交通的同步性较差。在两种模拟器中，年长成年人比年轻成年人造成更多的碰撞，安全裕度更小，过街速度更慢。因此，HMD 在大多数过街行为中再现了已经在 CAVE 上观察到的与年龄相关的差异。对于两种模拟器，通常观察到的速度效应也存在。两种模拟器都没有出现晕动症或对立体视锐度或姿势平衡的任何不良影响。HMD 产生的存在感和偏好度高于 CAVE。这些发现为 HMD 具有研究行人行为的明显潜力提供了证据。
