UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Spatial Navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments

Conroy, Ruth; (2001) Spatial Navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), University of London. Green open access

[thumbnail of 1111.PDF]
Preview
PDF
1111.PDF

Download (34MB)

Abstract

Pedestrian movement studies in real environments have shown consistent statistical relationships between ‘configurational’ properties of spatial layouts and movement flows, facilitating prediction of movement from designs. However, these studies are at an aggregate level and say nothing about how individuals make the micro-scale decisions producing these emergent regularities. They do not therefore ‘explain’ movement. Progress on this is difficult since decision-making mechanisms are hard to observe in the real world and the ‘experimenter effect’ is ever-present. Could the study of movement in immersive virtual environments help? If it could be shown that movement in virtual environments was analogous to movement in real environments then microbehaviour data (head movement, direction of gaze, visual search behaviours) could be obtained through virtual experiments. The aim of this thesis is to explore this possibility by constructing experimental worlds with spatial properties varied to reflect those known to relate to movement in the real world, and asking individuals navigate through them immersively. Powerful analogies are initially demonstrated between virtual and real behaviour. Two types of micro-scale analysis are then performed: linear analysis, examining how routes are formed and how far linearity is conserved, using measurements of cumulative angular deviation along a path, string-matching algorithms to determine average routes, and analysis of isovist attributes along routes; and positional analysis, focussing upon pausing behaviour, including examining where subjects pause along routes, what choices are made at junctions, how isovist properties of pauselocations compare with an environment’s overall isovist attribute distribution, and correlating pause-point and isovist data. In each analysis, ‘subjective’ movement behaviour is related to ‘objective’ properties of environments. The experiments show results strongly suggesting how noted aggregate regularities are produced: linearity is strongly conserved, usually following long sight-lines, with pauses in configurationally ‘integrated’ locations offering strategic visual properties, long lines of sight, and large isovist areas.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Spatial Navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1111
Downloads since deposit
2,257Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item