Development of an Effective Pedestrian Simulator for Research

Sween, R., Carruth, D. W., Waddell, D. M., & Furuichi, M. (2016). Development of an Effective Pedestrian Simulator for Research. AHFE 2016. Orlando, FL.

Abstract

Studying pedestrian behavior is an important step in preventing pedestrian fatalities on the road. In 2013, 14% of all traffic fatalities were pedestrians according to the US Department of Transportation. However, to investigate pedestrian behavior, several factors need to be considered. First and foremost, the safety of the participants must be assured. Second, the study environment needs to be controlled to prevent confounding variables. Finally, the costs to develop and perform the study must also be controlled. To address these obstacles, we propose the implementation of a full-motion pedestrian simulator. The core of the simulator is a Unity 5 video game environment. Multiple environments can be created to cover a range of study scenarios. The use of an Oculus Rift provides the participant with an immersive view of the Unity-driven virtual environment. The Oculus Rift provides data used to update the orientation of the participant’s view. Finally, some type of positional tracking system, currently either a Microsoft Kinect 2 sensor or a Motion Analysis passive infrared motion capture system, is used to track the user’s head position in the real world and update the participant’s view. This means that movement in the real world is translated one-to-one into movement in the virtual world, in all three dimensions. Current data recording systems track participant’s head position and orientation. These systems will be further developed to support playback of movement as well as recording of 360-degree video and still imagery. Building a system like this previously would not have been practical outside of a lab focused on virtual reality. In recent years, improvements in virtual reality and motion tracking have drastically improved the efficacy and lowered costs for these technologies. High resolution, low-latency displays and sensor improvements intended for mobile devices now power the latest generation of virtual reality headsets. Microsoft’s gaming-focused improvements to the Kinect 2 have resulted in a low-cost device that is capable of full body tracking. These improvements, along with game engine improvements in Unity result in a high-fidelity pedestrian simulation environment within reach of smaller labs. The wider implication of this technology, especially for smaller labs, is that more groups will be able to do research in a virtual environment without needing to be experts in virtual reality. However, there are still challenges to overcome in the current implementation of the pedestrian simulator. One challenge that all simulators face is the question of validity: do the results found in the simulator correlate to how people would really act in the real world? We are planning several validation studies to attempt to answer this question in different domains. Furthermore, the environments created so far feel very “sterile”. In order to improve a participant’s immersion in the environment, additional details, such as non-player characters, props, and lighting and environmental effects will be added to the environments.