Technologies and Methods for
Studying Movement in Designed Spaces.
Saif Haq (
(Email: saif.haq@ttu.edu for more
information)
Success in research depends largely on the development and application
of new technologies and methods. This includes both the invention of new
technologies that are specific for the study of movement and the adaptation of
technology and methods from other disciplines.
The purpose of this workshop is to bring together a group of
researchers and professionals who are actively engaged in the use of new
technologies and methods. They will discuss their own attempts in using them in
their study of movement in designed environments, discuss successes and
failures and evaluate them for future use.
It is expected that after brief presentations from selected speakers
the entire group will engage in a spirited discussion that may cross fertilize
individual ideas. Additionally there will be individual opportunities for attendees
to communicate personally with investigators who have implemented and
experimented with each technique and method.
PRESENTATIONS:
Richard Wener,
A Palmtop Computer System for Recording Movement
Systems for studying movement in and through space, such as behavior
mapping and behavior tracking, can be invaluable in understanding
human-environment interactions, and can provide information not duplicable by
user self-report. These data can address
many critical questions about space use including “how”, “how often”, “how
long” and “in what order.”
Unfortunately, systematic behavioral observations are not used as often
as one would hope in E-B studies at
least part because of the effort and cost involved. Mapping and tracking can be
quite labor intensive and that labor is significantly increased by the
time, cost, and transcription errors
involved in converting observation data sheets to a machine-readable format for
data analysis.
We have developed a program that runs on a palmtop computer to automate
behavior mapping and tracking in order to make the observation process easier
and more accurate, and to eliminate the steps involved in data
transcription. The program allows the
observer to create a plan on the screen of the space to be observed and to
‘tap’ that map on the screen to enter information on time, place, behavior, and
subject. The computer’s internal clock
notes the time the behavior occurred and can be set to serve as a stop watch to
time the duration of events. In this presentation we will show several examples
of uses of this hardware/software package for field research.
Kapila D. Silva,
Substituting Vision in Navigation
Movement in the environment involves performing key spatial tasks such
as identifying environmental cues, making a choice of spatial locality,
orientation, and navigation. These spatial behavioral tasks require a complex
coordination of sensory-perceptual, movement control, and cognitive
competencies. Among the sensory modes in operation, vision dominates other
sensory modalities in perception of environmental cues, orientation, and
navigation. However, recent research studies propose visually impaired
individuals possess the same abilities to process and understand spatial
concepts, and that, although functionally equivalent to the sighted, they are
carried out in a different and often slower manner (Ungar:2000). What these
studies actually suggest is the mediation of non-visual sensory modalities – haptic, kinesthetic, auditory, & olfactory coding - in
compensating the vision deficiencies in acquiring spatial knowledge. For
several decades, researchers in neurophysiology, occupational therapy, and medical
engineering have been studying the possibility of developing navigational aids
for the visually impaired people based on nonvisual
sensory modalities. One of the on-going research agenda in this realm involves
the concept of sensory substitution, in which a given sensory system may be
able to process information that would normally be handled by another defective
sensory system (Veraat:1989). Based on literature, this presentation briefly
discusses research on two such devices substituting vision with touch and
hearing, and their implications for research into design of environments that
facilitate movement of visually impaired people.
Ross L. Loomis
Department of Psychology,
The study of Movement in Exhibit Environments
Museums and other exhibit environments have long been studied for
patterns of movement. Observing visitor patterns of attention and circulation
through designed exhibit spaces has been done with a wide variety of methods. A
look across the history of visitor studies reveals a number of strategies and
purposes behind the studies. An early effort used still photography to explain
‘museum fatigue’. By
the 1930’s extensive studies had been done using trained observers in a variety
of exhibit environments. Years later the editors of Human Factors would
consider these studies among the first truly environmental psychological
studies of the influence of architectural design on behavior. By the 1950’s
observation of movement in galleries was combined with other measures such as
interviews and surveys of visitors to provide a more comprehensive evaluation
of exhibit effectiveness. The 1960s saw a growing use of technology with video
camera recordings and even a floor grid (Hodometer)
system for recording visitor movement. However, use of human observers
remains popular and a variety of observation protocols have been used.
Procedures for analyzing observations vary from simple descriptive summaries,
to use of transformed data, to application of survival statistics. A worksheet
outlining various purposes and methods for understanding movement in exhibits
will be used to prompt discussion. A selected bibliography will also be
provided participants.
Saif Haq
Role of VIE (Virtual Immersive Environments) for
the study of movement
Observations of human movement
are important in understanding human-environment interactions and their
effects. One problem in this endeavor is the difficulty in controlling the
environment or various parts of it. In this regard, the
development of ‘virtual immersive environments’ is important. This
presentation will discuss various ‘from the shelf’ technologies that are
available for creating immersive environments and discuss their effectiveness and
utility in conducting experiments in human movement through designed
environments. Samples of ongoing research will also be demonstrated.
, Stephen Boelter, Saif Haq, Ross Loomis, Kapila
Silva, Susan Torgrude and Rich Wener.