Research utilising virtual reality

This research explores the use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) to study individual movement in crowds. Computer based crowd simulations are used across a variety of fields to simulate movement of people - one example is fire safety engineering. The models rely on input parameters, for example the relationship between occupant density and walking speed - often called fundamental diagrams. These fundamental diagrams are based on old data and are no longer representative of the populations today and in the future due to changing demographics.

Instead of collecting data for updated fundamental diagrams (which is time-consuming and costly), it is instead desirable to develop a fundamental understanding of individual movement in crowds. This involves observation of individual movement patterns in crowded situations. This offers a range of challenges, e.g., the fact that the individual cannot be seen by the researcher while in a crowd.

The solution is to put individuals in virtual crowds, i.e., the person is in a crowd in VR while being alone in the physical world, which allows the researchers to observe individual movement patterns.

The research will involve a series of experiments which test the research question, can VR be used as a valid means of collecting individual movement data for pedestrians in crowds?