Retracing evacuation strategy: A virtual reality game-based investigation into the influence of building’s spatial configuration in an emergency (original) (raw)
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2014
Emergencies (e.g., fire egress) into complex buildings are stressful situations which can provoke unexpected, undesired and sometimes unsafety behaviors in the users. Thus, the main objective of this pilot study was to investigate the relative influence of new technology-based exit signs, when compared to the conventional static ISO-type counterparts, in the users' wayfinding behavior during an emergency egress. A critical situation was designed in which the environmental variables and exit signs, at the 12 decision points, were giving conflicting directional information. Thirty participants were randomly assigned to the two groups (i.e., Static signs and dynamic signs), and their route-choices in the 12 decision points displaced along a route into a virtual hotel were collected using a Virtual Reality-based methodology. Findings suggest that for the group exposed to static ISO-type exit signs, the reliance on environmental variables decreased along the egress route, and for the first intersection about 73% of participants preferred to follow by the direction which was the opposite of that posted on the egress sign. However, when technology-based signs were used, the influence of the environmental variables was weak from the first decision point to the end, as suggested by a compliance rate with the exit signs reaching almost 98% along the entire route.
International Journal of Human-computer Studies / International Journal of Man-machine Studies, 2010
Human behaviour in fires is mainly studied by incident evaluations and real-life experiments, such as unannounced evacuation drills. The possibilities of virtual reality for studying human behaviour in fires are so far hardly adopted by researchers. Nevertheless, the application of a behavioural assessment and research tool (BART) in virtual reality is expected to be a valuable supplement on the existing research methods. The innovative instrument will be validated by comparing the results of experiments in a virtual environment with results of the same experiments in real life. In this paper some results of case studies on evacuation behaviour in a real hotel building, as well as in a virtual hotel building in BART are given. The participants' route choice, pre-movement time, pre-evacuation behaviour, movement time and evacuation behaviour are part of the analysis in the paper.
Human responses to multiple sources of directional information in virtual crowd evacuations
The evacuation of crowds from buildings or vehicles is one example that highlights the importance of understanding how individual-level interactions and decision-making combine and lead to the overall behaviour of crowds. In particular, to make evacuations safer, we need to understand how individuals make movement decisions in crowds. Here, we present an evacuation experiment with over 500 participants testing individual behaviour in an interactive virtual environment. Participants had to choose between different exit routes under the influence of three different types of directional information: static information (signs), dynamic information (movement of simulated crowd) and memorized information, as well as the combined effect of these different sources of directional information. In contrast to signs, crowd movement and memorized information did not have a significant effect on human exit route choice in isolation. However, when we combined the latter two treatments with additional directly conflicting sources of directional information, for example signs, they showed a clear effect by reducing the number of participants that followed the opposing directional information. This suggests that the signals participants observe more closely in isolation do not simply overrule alternative sources of directional information. Age and gender did not consistently explain differences in behaviour in our experiments.
Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2012, 2013
A general challenge during a building emergency evacuation is guiding crowd to the best exits, given potential hazards and blockages due to high density use. Although computer simulation programs such as FDS+Evac allow researchers to evaluate various guidance policies under different circumstances, computational complexity limits their use during an actual emergency. A second limitation of such programs currently available is that they can only model certain psychological variables that affect evacuation. We suggest two innovations to address these difficulties. First, using macroscopic models, mathematical techniques can allow for rapid optimization of guidance that could eventually be used to provide real-time guidance during emergencies. Second, we conduct virtual reality experiments using human participants to provide confirmation of our models, and provide insights into how psychological factors not yet available in FDS+Evac will affect evacuation outcomes. Results of an initial VR experiment are presented.
Agent-Based Simulation of Spatial Cognition and Wayfinding in Building Fire Emergency Evacuation
Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography
There is a need to understand how people and environment react in a fire building emergency. Sometimes in the wayfinding process decision errors may occur mainly based on topological errors of the signage. A situation is critical if a decision about which path to take cannot be made with certainty, especially in a crisis situation. An agent-based simulation of human's behavior in escaping from the fire with due attention to the building's signage and dynamic nature of fire propagation affecting the wayfinding task is outlined in this paper. The hypothesis of the paper is that successful navigation is possible if the agent is able to make the correct decision through well-defined cues in critical cases, so the design of the building signage is evaluated through the agent-based simulation. Construction of mental representations of spatial environment and exploring models in the agentbased simulation have been proposed and a computational model successfully tested in an indoor complex hospital environment in different situations and the evacuation time from the building is computed. The most appropriate signage design resulted in the shortest evacuation time in various situations.
International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering, 2022
Nowadays, the existing evacuation method for emergencies in a building still relies on exit signs and evacuation maps, which usually take longer for the victim to read thoroughly in the case of panic. Therefore, Dynamic Evacuation Routing System (DERS) is developed as a guiding evacuation system that comes in lines, and the lights are programmable to show the safest and shortest path to escape. We developed DERS with Virtual Reality (VR) as a training system tool. Three variables will be tested, namely DERS implementation, type of building, and the starting floor level. This quantification combined three methods: Presence Questionnaire (PQ), System Usability Scale (SUS), and usability matrix. It was suggested that DERS implementation was able to improve all results collectively with different building and starting floor levels as other significant factors affecting the results and the quality of the simulation were good for immersion level (3.90 out of 5.00) and decent for usability level (71.72 out of 100). Therefore, DERS implementation could improve evacuation effectiveness in the case of an emergency, and VR simulation has been successfully utilized as a medium for evaluating new evacuation systems using DERS.
Introduction Evacuation from tunnel fire emergencies may become problematic if tunnel occupants do not engage quickly enough into evacuation. Dangerous goods transporters increase the risks tunnel occupants are exposed to. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of an increased risk during a simulated tunnel emergency on participants' subjective hazard perception and evacuation behavior. Methods Using a five sided CAVE system, two experimental groups were immersed into a virtual road tunnel fire emergency. In the dangerous goods condition a burning gasoline transporter was visible. In the control condition a burning heavy goods vehicle was visible. Hazard perception, pre-movement time, movement time and exit choices were analyzed. Results In the dangerous goods condition the situation was rated significantly more dangerous than in the control condition. In both conditions participants showed appropriate behavioral reactions and either moved to an emergency exit or to an emergency phone. Discussion In combination with the high threat ratings the results indicate good situation awareness of the participants, and that emergency signage in the given visibility conditions was effective in guiding participants towards an exit or to an emergency phone.
Virtual Reality
The current manuscript verifies the use of virtual reality (VR)-based methodology as a helpful way to study human behavior during the pre-evacuation period, considering the influence of pre-emergency activity (competitive tasks). Two conditions with different engagement levels (i.e., low and high) were set up, and sixty company workers were distributed across conditions randomly. Five types of evacuation behaviors were defined, and compliance behavior results showed most participants (66.7%) evacuated with the ISO-type evacuation alarm in low engagement condition, whereas only 20% of participants evacuated in high engagement situation. Statistical results confirmed the influence of pre-emergency activity on evacuation efficiency. Open-ended questions summarized three levels of knowledge background that justified the reasons/motivations behind pre-evacuation behaviors. simulator sickness, presence, and usability questionnaires confirmed the variable control between conditions. In sum...
Information use by humans during dynamic route choice in virtual crowd evacuations
We conducted a computer-based experiment with over 450 human participants and used a Bayesian model selection approach to explore dynamic exit route choice mechanisms of individuals in simulated crowd evacuations. In contrast to previous work, we explicitly explore the use of time-dependent and time independent information in decision-making. Our findings suggest that participants tended to base their exit choices on time-dependent information, such as differences in queue lengths and queue speeds at exits rather than on time-independent information, such as differences in exit widths or exit route length. We found weak support for similar decision-making mechanisms under a stress-inducing experimental treatment. However, under this treatment participants were less able or willing to adjust their original exit choice in the course of the evacuation. Our experiment is not a direct test of behaviour in real evacuations, but it does highlight the role different types of information and stress play in real human decision-making in a virtual environment. Our findings may be useful in identifying topics for future study on real human crowd movements or for developing more realistic agent-based simulations.
Isovists compactness and stairs as predictors of evacuation route choice
The building design is a crucial factor that can be actively adjusted and optimized to prevent human and property threats in emergency scenarios. Previous research suggests that specific building layouts may significantly influence human behaviour during evacuation. However, detailed empirical data about human behaviour in various types of buildings with different layouts are still missing and only marginal recommendations from this field are reflected in actual construction practice. In this study, desktop VR technologies were employed to study human decision-making in problematic T-intersections in the context of an emergency evacuation. More specifically, we studied fundamental attributes of buildings such as the width and length of the corridors and the presence of stairs to explore how they influence the choice of the evacuation route. The space-syntax isovist method was used to describe spatial parameters of corridors, which makes the results applicable to all buildings. Behav...