ISL, Researchers Create Unique Experiment for Innovative Pedestrian Distraction Study
After successfully navigating
his way across the
busy street, psychology
researcher Art Kramer decides to attempt the
crossing again and ends
up taking one for science.
"You've been hit. Better
luck next time," booms a
mellifluous, paternalistic
voice from above.
Kramer is walking on
a treadmill situated in
the center of the
CAVE™, a 3-D virtual
reality immersive environment
operated by the
Beckman Institute's
Integrated Systems
Laboratory (ISL) that features
three wall-sized display
screens in front and on
both sides, and another on
the floor. Kramer recovers
from his encounter with the
simulated automobile and
lets collaborator and
Beckman Fellow Mark Neider take his turn
in this newest addition to the world of virtual
reality psychology experiments. Neider
also successfully crosses the street but he,
too, wants to experience the sensation of
standing in the path of oncoming traffic.
"You've been hit. Better luck next time."
The voice, like the cars, street, and building
on the screens is artificial - an AT&T software
version of human sound. The images of
moving cars were downloaded from the
Internet and the street and building images
are from pictures of University campus
locales taken by Jim Crowell, ISL's triple
threat experiment designer/psychologist/
computer programmer.
Crowell, Kramer, and Neider are in the
CAVE this mid-August afternoon fleshing
out the final form of an experiment that is
groundbreaking in its design and in its
research focus. It also marks the first time
the CAVE has ever been used for an experimental
study, said ISL Director Hank
Kaczmarski.
The meeting in the Beckman basement
home of the CAVE is the culmination of a
seven- to eight-month long collaborative
process between Crowell and Kaczmarski
from ISL and Kramer and Neider, with
input from Beckman faculty member Jason
McCarley. The study being done by Neider
and Kramer involves the topic of pedestrian
distraction during traffic situations.
Kaczmarski said designing for experiments
almost always includes incorporating
something novel, so installing a modified
treadmill into the CAVE for the pedestrian
study "was a pretty typical process."
However, that doesn't make the pedestrian/
treadmill experiment any less unique,
Kaczmarski said. "This has never been done
before, anywhere."
Kramer has been a pioneering
researcher in the area of driver distraction,
with several studies done in Beckman's driving
simulator, located just down the hall
from the CAVE. He said recent news stories
about accidents on campus and around town
involving pedestrians prompted this new
project that will, like the driver studies,
focus on the divided attention of test subjects
who are using devices like cell phones.
"We thought that maybe we needed to go
beyond driver distraction and start examining
pedestrians and how distracted they get
as they are crossing busy streets and
whether or not it had implications for what
happened to them," Kramer said.
The initial run-through session had
Kramer, Neider, and Crowell brainstorming on
final revisions to the experiment. After taking
his turn on the treadmill, Kramer asks Crowell
if the speed of the cars can be varied.