"We are kind of pushing the rendering
power," Crowell cautions, concerned that
increasing the complexity of the simulation
might affect the ability to display the cars'
movements smoothly.
"Are we able to record all the variables
with respect to the simulated automobiles,
walking speed, whether you're hit or not hit,
where you start relative to where the car is
and what the speed is?" Kramer asks.
Yes, they know the speed of the cars and
can estimate the speed of the pedestrians,
Crowell says.
"What about the distance of a car, say,
when they enter the roadway?" Neider asks.
"Sure." The experiment's computer program
can even save the test subjects' entire
time course at half second or one second
intervals throughout the whole course,
Crowell adds.
Over the span of the next half-hour, the
three discuss the experiment, including
issues such as whether to use iPods and if
so, what kinds of music (none know what
kinds of music "the kids" are listening to so
Neider suggests having grad students pick
the tunes), or whether to have partners for
test subjects if phone usage is studied.
Neider ticks off some of the possible distractions
for the pedestrian test subjects:
"You could have people just listening to
music, you could have them listening to a
podcast, or there is the possibility of a different
kind of listening going on because they
could be watching a TV show on an iPod. Or
they could be talking on a cell phone."
Kramer takes things a step further. "We
need to buy an iPhone," he says, drawing
laughs.
The session ends with Kramer and
Neider expressing satisfaction with the
design; a little more tweaking and the
experiment will be ready for student test
subjects in September.
Turning a research idea into the reality
of an experimental setting in the CAVE
required months of back-and-forth discussions,
numerous e-mail exchanges, and
ideas that were suggested, cast aside or
accepted. The run-through in August with
Neider and Kramer was a sort of test-drive
in order for Crowell to show the experiment's
design to the researchers. While
Crowell handled the computer and software
requirements, it was up to Kaczmarski to
integrate the treadmill into the experiment.