Telepresence Effects on the Relationship of Velocity to the Psychological Experience of Speed

Abstract

Rensselaer's applied cognitive science program is involved in creating and understanding devices for communicating subjective states to humans. The market for such knowledge is for purposes of telepresence, virtual reality, and gaming. One project is the connection of a driving simulator (full size) to a remote-control car ( 1 / 10 scale), or "telebot." The use of the system allows for research on the mapping of physical variables from one system, the telebot, to the psychological variables of another system, the simulator. The relevant impact of this is a system that ties a simulator to the control and feedback of an actual, albeit reduced-scale, system. The present driving system uses the most direct connection between the telebot and the simulator. The connection uses an embedded controller in the transmitter of an off-the-shelf remote control car that allows a computer to control the telebot via serial communications. The telebot has a mounted TV (CCE) and audio transmitter that sends signals back to the computer for display in the simulator. This allows direct testing, or research, of driver's simulator performance with a real but reduced-scale car. Such a system offers both the closed environment of a simulator and the open chaotic environment of a real system. The visual display characteristics of such a system are obviously paramount, and careful manipulation of factors in visual perception can go far toward creating an accurate mapping of physical to psychological variables. Effects of view height on perceived speedAn important variable in controlling the telebot, or any vehicle, is perceived speed. Speed in this sense is a psycho-logical measure of rate of motion, rather than the physical measure of velocity, or distance traveled over time. Speed is a factor in judging braking distance, rate of turning, and the time available for making decisions. Changing the scale between simulator and the telebot changes the geometric relationships in the field of view, which may affect the driver's perceived speed. Specifically, the reduced scale of the telebot lowers the view height by lowering the camera. This change in height impacts the vertical angles in the view, but not the horizontal angles. For example, the rocks in the road underneath the driver are closer and thus subtend greater visual angles, while the trunks of trees at the side of the road subtend the same viewing angles.The exact impact of camera view height on telebot speed judgments depends on how humans perceive speed in the context of viewing movement in a real-world environment through a display device. Current theories of visual perception hold that humans use two major sources of visual information in perceiving self-motion: discontinuity (or edge) rate, and global optical flow rate (DyreThis study examines potential mappings between the subjective experience of speed when mediated through visual display devices and the physical velocity of a vehicle, especially when the apparatus for experiencing speed and the actual vehicle are not in the sa...