Mapping the physical world to psychological reality

Abstract

The successful creation of telepresence and virtual environments requires a change in design paradigm. We must move away from attempts to recreate reality in its entirety toward the creation of environments that are psychologically real for humans, because in fact, "reality" mediated through display devices is largely subjective. The experiments discussed in this paper show that a single intrinsic physical property, such as the velocity or stability of a vehicle, can give rise to a multitude of subjective perceptions-for example, that the vehicle is moving faster than it really is, or that it is more likely to tip over going into a turn. These perceptions can easily be manipulated through knowledge of the variables and relationships involved, such as the effect of camera height. Designers can use this knowledge to create systems that promote desirable behaviors and limit dangerous or unproductive behaviors.

Optic flow and geometric field of view in a driving simulator display

“…When a driver/vehicle traverses a modeled 3D environment, the generated optic flow should be similar to that found in the real world [8]. It has been proposed that optic flow can be utilized in a number of driving tasks: (1) to obtain heading information when driving on straight and curved roads, (2) to steer around parked vehicles, roadside trees, etc., and (3) in braking and/or steering to avoid collisions when approaching other moving vehicles [2].…”

Vehicle Height Affects Drivers’ Speed Perception: Implications for Rollover Risk

“…The equation was originally developed to help virtual reality designers design more realistic scenarios, but it might also be applicable to real roadway situations. In fact, Noel and Hunter tested the model in an experiment involving participants' subjective ratings of how likely a vehicle was to roll over (16 ). When subjects viewed a forwardmoving scene that had been filmed at three different eye heights [2.5, 3.2, and 3.8 cm (1, 1.25, and 1.5 in., respectively)] at 5 km/h (3.1 mph), they rated the scene filmed from the lowest eye height as being from the vehicle that was the most likely to roll over.…”