MSGID: 1:317/3 64b220f9   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Improving urban planning with virtual reality    
      
     Date:   
         July 14, 2023   
     Source:   
         Ruhr-University Bochum   
     Summary:   
         What should the city we live in look like? How do structural   
         changes affect the people who move around it? Cartographers use   
         virtual reality tools to explore these questions before a great   
         deal of money is spent on building measures. Using the Unity3 game   
         engine, they recreate scenarios in 3D where people can experience   
         potential changes through immersion.   
      
         They were able to prove that the physical reaction to this   
         experience is measurable.   
      
      
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   What should the city we live in look like? How do structural changes   
   affect the people who move around it? Cartographers at Ruhr University   
   Bochum use virtual reality tools to explore these questions before a   
   great deal of money is spent on building measures. Using the Unity3   
   game engine, they recreate scenarios in 3D where people can experience   
   potential changes through immersion. They were able to prove that the   
   physical reaction to this experience is measurable.   
      
   Julian Keil and Marco Weissmann from Professor Frank Dickmann's team   
   published their findings in KN -- Journal of Cartography and Geographic   
   Information on 1 May 2023 and in Applied Sciences on 13 May 2023.   
      
   Lab kit for urban scenarios Construction measures that transform   
   urban settings change the environment of both the people who live there   
   permanently and those who visit them temporarily. It's not always possible   
   to foresee the effects in advance. In such cases, it helps to recreate the   
   setting in a 3D model which people can experience through immersion. To   
   this end, the cartographers working with Marco Weissmann use software that   
   was originally designed to programme computer game environments. "We've   
   developed a lab kit of sorts in which you can simulate an environment   
   virtually, complete with traffic," explains Weissmann. The researchers can   
   use it to directly visualise the effects of planned structural changes:   
   how does the traffic flow? Do cars and pedestrians get in each other's   
   way or not?  Measuring the implicit effects of spaces Moreover, the space   
   that surrounds us affects our well-being. We do notice it sometimes,   
   but not always. "People who've lived on a noisy street for a long time,   
   for example, might think they don't even hear the noise anymore," says   
   Julian Keil. "But we know that, objectively speaking, residents in such   
   streets experience significantly higher stress levels than others." In   
   order to determine such implicit effects of urban planning measures before   
   a lot of money has been poured into them, the cartography team developed   
   a method to measure them in advance. For this purpose, they programmed an   
   urban environment in virtual reality and had test participants experience   
   the scenarios. At the same time, they measured the skin conductivity of   
   the test persons, which provides information about their stress level.   
      
   They showed that a higher traffic volume in a street clearly upset the   
   test persons, as measured by their skin conductivity. To corroborate their   
   findings, a study is planned to incorporate more physical measurements   
   that will provide information about the participants' stress levels   
   and various emotions, including heart rate, blood pressure and pupil   
   size. "Until now, residents and other stakeholders have been involved   
   in the planning stage of construction measures, but only in the form   
   of surveys, i.e. explicit statements," says Keil, whose background is   
   in psychology. "Our method enables spatial planners to assess implicit   
   effects of possible measures and to include them in the planning, too."   
   Climate-friendly experiments The experiments for both studies were   
   conducted in a climate-friendly way using electricity from a mobile   
   solar system on the roof of the institute building.   
      
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   Materials provided by Ruhr-University_Bochum. Note: Content may be edited   
   for style and length.   
      
      
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Julian Keil, Marco Weissmann, Annika Korte, Dennis Edler, Frank   
      Dickmann.   
      
         Measuring Physiological Responses to Visualizations of Urban   
         Planning Scenarios in Immersive Virtual Reality. KN - Journal of   
         Cartography and Geographic Information, 2023; 73 (2): 117 DOI:   
         10.1007/s42489-023-00137-7   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230714114743.htm   
      
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