Kramer said there have been studies
with treadmills that go at a certain speed
but this one operates manually to recreate
real-world walking conditions. Kaczmarski
modified the treadmill by taking off the display
on top and removing a magnet underneath
that recorded the number of rotations;
he then installed eight magnets that send
signals to the PC cluster that powers the
CAVE.
The CAVE lab, which had been moved
from the third floor to its new home in the
basement earlier in 2007, has been used as
a testbed for experiments that would eventually
be done in the Cube. Kaczmarski said
the Cube has become so popular that ISL
was forced to start using the CAVE as a
facility for experiments, the first being this
pedestrian distraction study.
Crowell, who has a Ph.D. in Cognitive
Psychology from Cal-Berkeley, is just one of
ISL's staff members who aid research efforts
in human multimodal perception and cognition
using the lab's advanced technologies.
Crowell's role for the past five-and-a-half years
has been to assist researchers like Kramer
and Neider in setting up experiments.
Crowell is interested in the research side
of psychology, but for him the truly interesting
part of the equation is the experiment itself.
"The part I like best is the setting up of
the experiments," Crowell said. "I have
always liked programming and the experiment
design part.
"I never so much liked writing things up
afterward," he added with a laugh.
Crowell said his background in psychology
helps him help the researchers in a number
of ways.
"The first and the most obvious way is
that when they say something I usually
understand immediately what they are talking
about, while someone who didn't have
the background might spend half an hour
figuring it out," Crowell said. "Also, if there
is a potential problem in a particular design,
I'm fairly likely to be able to spot it, depending
on how close it is my own experience."
Neider said Crowell is "genuinely interested
in the experiments we are running"
while Kramer said ISL is lucky to have
someone with backgrounds in both programming
and psychology.