吉岡 陽介

The impression of streets at night affects crime rates and the out-of-house rate. Therefore, it is important in architectural planning to elucidate the factors that contribute to the sense of safety on streets. Street lighting is one of the effective methods for improving the impression of streets at night. Among the some factors that control the effect of street lighting, the intervals between light and light have a significant impact on the impression of streets. However few studies have examined the relationship between street light intervals and sense of safety on streets.In this study, an experiment using virtual environment technology is conducted to verify the effect of street light intervals on the feeling of safety and discomfort of pedestrians at night. Through the quantitative analysis of the experimental results, the objective of this study is to obtain knowledge on the planning and design of street lighting that reduce discomfort and provides sense of safety.Ten college students participated in the experiment. Since characteristics of personal space may vary by gender, the participants consisted of five males and five females. The participants wore a head-mounted display (Vive Pro Eye / Vive) and were asked to stand upright to a street constructed in infinite virtual space. The light bulbs of a street lights in each condition were placed at a height of 5 m and illuminated the ground downward. The street lights were also placed in a straight line 2 m away to the right of the viewpoint of participants. The initial positions of the approaching unknown pedestrian (virtual avatar) were arranged on the point that 20 m straight ahead of the participant’s viewpoint.First, after the participants stand on the instructed position of virtual street, a start signal was called and the virtual avatar as unknown pedestrian started approaching to at 0.8 m/s. The participants had been asked to press the button of the hand controllers when they felt discomfort that they did not want the avatar to approach any closer. When the button was pressed, the avatar stopped approaching immediately and the distance between participants and avatar was measured and outputted. This measurement was repeated on different conditions of street light intervals to determine how the distance that causes discomfort changed. A total of four experimental conditions were generated by arranging rows of street lights at four different intervals: 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 m. Each condition was presented twice in a random order for each subject. All experimental analyses were performed using the mean of the data derived from the two replicate measurements. The statistical analyses of the experiment data determined a significant difference in the distances at which participants stopped the approaching avatar between conditions with street light intervals of 12.5 m and 100 m. Furthermore, significant trends were detected in the distances between conditions with street light intervals of 12.5 m and 50 m, as well as 25 m and 50 m. These results revealed that the wider the street light intervals, the greater the distance at which the participants feel discomfort that they did not want the avatar to approach any closer. The findings suggest that street light intervals exert an influence on the sense of safety on streets at night. Additionally, despite the absence of statistical significance, it is noteworthy that the distance to stop the avatar was greater magnitude for females than for males.

In our previous study, we have investigated the relationship between the shape of the curved passages and the sense of direction using a head-mounted display (Oculus Quest/Oculus). However, the horizontal visual field of the head-mounted display used in the study was about 90 degrees, whereas the human horizontal visual field is about 200 degrees. Because of this, the results could be different when passing through a curved passage with a wider horizontal visual field. Therefore, in this study, the effect of the horizontal visual field on the accuracy of the sense of direction in the curved passages was investigated.Ten college students participated in the experiment. The subjects were asked to wear a head-mounted display with a visual field of about 180 degrees (StarVR One/ StarVR Corporation) and hold a controller. The subjects also wore soundproof earmuffs to prevent hearing the surrounding sounds. After that, they were asked to walk through some curved passages constructed in a virtual environment.First, a virtual arrow was displayed and arranged at the beginning point of the passage. The subjects were asked to memorize the direction indicated by the virtual arrow (instructed direction). After memorization was completed, the subjects were asked to walk to the end of the passage. When the subjects reach the end of the passage, the entire passage was removed, and only an arrow indicating the traveling direction at the endpoint of the passage appears. After the arrow appeared, the subjects changed the direction of the arrow with the controller to reproduce the instructed direction (reproduced direction). The difference in angle between the “instructed direction” and the “reproduced direction” was used to extract the change in the sense of direction.The passages used in the experiment consisted of curved and straight parts. The width of the passages was 1500 mm, the height was 2500 mm, and the radius of curvature of the curved part was 3500 mm inside and 5000 mm outside. The turning angle of the curved passage was set at six levels in 15 degrees increments, ranging from 15 to 90 degrees (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 degrees). Furthermore, the subject’s horizontal visual field was restricted to two levels (90 and 180 degrees). A total of twelve conditions were set by combining these two variables. Each condition was presented twice in a random order for each subject.As a result of the experiment, no significant difference was detected in the difference between the “instructed direction” and “reproduced direction” between the condition with the horizontal visual field of 90 degrees and 180 degrees. This result suggested that the accuracy of the sense of direction is not significantly changed even if the horizontal visual field is restricted to 90 degrees. Therefore, the visual field outside of 90 degrees does not seem to affect the accuracy of direction sense in curved passage. For this reason, it is assumed that our previous study results can be applied even when the visual field is wider than 90 degrees.

Controlling human walking speed is an important topic in architectural planning. Understanding the factors that cause changes in walking speed can contribute to the crowd manipulation and the improvement of street attractiveness. Visual information is one of the most important factors for changing the walking speed, and a lot of study has been conducted on it. However, few studies have examined the relationship between walking speed and visual stimuli by color.Therefore, this study conducted an experiment using virtual environment technology to evaluate the effect of the colorfulness of the texture on the sidewall of the pathway on walking speed. The main purpose of this study is to obtain useful knowledge for the design of attractive street through quantitative analysis of the experimental results.Ten university students as the participants were asked to wear a wide view head-mounted display (Star VR one/ Star VR Co. /Horizontal angle of Field of View: 210°) in the experiment. Since the size of the real experimental room was large enough (9,680 mm x 15,600 mm) and the HMD’s position has been fully captured with in the area, the participants could walk around in a virtual environment with their own feet. The participants were asked to walk 6 m along through each of pathways in eight different conditions presented within this virtual environment, and their walking speed was measured. In common setting with each condition, the width of pathway was set at 6m wide and height of sidewalls were also set at 6m on both sides. The entire length of pathway were set at 200 m, so that the end of the pathway was not visible for the participants in walking.The texture of the sidewalls of the pathway consisted of small square tiles joined together. Two levels of the size of the tiles (500mm square or 1000mm square) and two levels of the colorfulness of the tiles (Colored or Non-Colored) were combined to form the different experimental conditions. For each of these four conditions, adding a case in which the participant was asked to gaze at any location and a case in which he was instructed to gaze the point floated 30 m ahead in the travel direction to continue, we made a total of eight conditions. The participants examined these eight conditions in random order.The results of the experiment showed that the average walking speed were significantly higher in the Colored condition than in the Non-colored condition, especially in the case of participants gazing point was not fixed on travel direction. And these significant differences were also found regardless of the tile size level. This result indicates that walking speed was accelerated when walking in the richly "colorfulness" environment than when walking in the less "colorfulness" environment.In addition, in the case of the participant's gaze position was fixed, this significant difference in colorfulness could not be confirmed. This may be due to the ability of peripheral visual field. The peripheral visual field has lower ability to discriminate colors than the central visual field. While the gaze position was fixed to travel direction, the sidewalls were perceived mainly in this peripheral visual field. Therefore, it is considered that the effect of the colorfulness was difficult to appear.

When working in a room, people may choose to work around a window for a sense of openness and recovery of fatigue. However, design around a window for example the size of a window and the distance from the sidewalk may have a negative effect on the mental strain, such as decreased concentration on work.In this study, we examined the effects of design around a window on the mental burden of person working at a desk through a subjective experiment using both a virtual environment technology and an electrodermal activity measurement method. This study is a part of research aimed at obtaining knowledge about design around a window that does not cause mental strain. We arranged floor-to-ceiling height windows and a moving virtual human avatar in the virtual environment and measured the skin potential response (SPR) of the subjects under each condition.A total of eleven students participated in the experiment. The subject wore an electrodermal activity meter and sat in the middle of a quiet experimental room. They also experienced a virtual rectangular room presented via a head-mounted display. The dimensions of the virtual room were set at 3000 mm in width, 2500 mm in depth, and 3000 mm in height. A 3000 mm high window was created on the front wall. We set the subject sat 800 mm away from the window of the virtual room. Human avatars passed outside the window.There are eighteen experimental conditions with those three parameters: three widths of window (1000, 2000, and 3000 mm), three types of avatars (1. walking, 4. jogging, and 5. striding) and two distance levels between the subject and avatar (1000 and 2000 mm). In one continuous trial, three of the eighteen experimental conditions were presented in random order, resulting in three types of avatars appearing at 30-50 seconds intervals while the window width was fixed at a certain level of three. After a 20-second break, the next trial began with the other condition. The order of the window widths and distance level between the subject and avatar was in random order for each subject. During the experiment, the subjects performed a task to type a key in the same direction as an arrow displayed on a monitor.The results showed that the mental strain of the person working at a desk was significantly higher when the window width was 1000 mm in comparison to a window width of 3000 mm. when 1. walking avatar appeared. Compared to the previous experiment in which subjects had no task, the mental strain was significantly reduced in some factors. From these analyses, we find that the narrower the window width, the higher the mental strain on the person working at a desk. Also, it suggests that the mental strain varies depending on existence of a task.These findings may be useful in creating window designs that make it easier to concentrate on tasks.

Humans have a sense of time; however, this sense is subjective. We have all experienced that periods of boredom feel longer, and periods spent in pleasant activities feel shorter. The relationship between humans’ sense of time and visual stimuli has been studied in many research fields, including psychology and informatics. In the field of informatics, there have been attempts to use the relationship between the sense of time and visual stimuli for practical purposes. Studies using visual stimuli on a computer monitor have had some degree of positive results. This research attempts to apply this pertinent knowledge obtained in informatics to architectural spaces and examine whether the presentation of periodic visual stimuli to peripheral vision can act as a spatial element that changes one’s sense of time. This research focuses on the frequency and presentation position of periodic visual stimuli. This research investigates the influence of periodic visual stimuli on the sense of time through two virtual reality experiments. Experiments were conducted in a room of dimensions 4 x 4 x 2.4, created in an immersive virtual environment. The participants were immersed in the virtual environment using a head-mounted display and they remained seated while the experiments were conducted. Light bulbs were set at equal distances of 30 cm on walls of the room in the virtual environment and repeatedly flashed to present periodic visual stimuli to the participants' peripheral vision. The participants evaluated the time in a virtual environment based on a set of conditions. The first experiment examined the frequency of periodic visual stimuli on the participants’ sense of time by setting four frequencies: 0(no stimuli), 30, 60, and 90 times per minute. The participants evaluated time twice at each frequency, and all eight trials were conducted in random order. The first experiment showed that the participants perceived time as significantly longer in the condition wherein the frequency was 90 times per minute as compared to that in conditions wherein the frequencies were 0, 30, 60 times per minute. Thus, the results suggest that a presentation of periodic visual stimuli with a high frequency has the effect of making time feel longer. The second experiment examined the relationship between the presentation position of periodic visual stimuli and the sense of time. The frequency of periodic visual stimuli was set at 90 times per minute, and there were four presentation positions: sidewall, floor-ceiling, sidewall-floor-ceiling, and no stimuli. The participants evaluated time twice at each presentation position, and the order of eight trials was designed in a manner that there was no duplication between the stimuli presented to the participants. The second experiment revealed that the participants perceived time as significantly longer in the condition including the position sidewall-floor-ceiling as compared to that in conditions including the positions sidewall and floor-ceiling. The results suggest that regardless of the presentation position, visual stimuli presented in extensive view make time feel longer. These findings have the potential to create methods to change one’s sense of time in architectural spaces intentionally.

Recognition of the correct direction is crucial in reaching the desired destination, including the assimilation of the surrounding environmental features while dynamically moving. One of the scenarios where the sense of direction tends to misshift is when passing through a gently curved passage. However, there are few studies that have investigated the relationship between the features of curved passages and sense of direction.In this study, an experiment using virtual environment technology was conducted to evaluate the effect of the turning angle of curved passages on the accuracy of the sense of direction. The purpose of this study includes obtaining useful knowledge for the architectural design of passages to avoid a misshift of the sense of direction by analyzing the experimental results quantitively.Eleven college students participated in the experiment. The subjects were asked to wear a head-mounted display and walk through some curved passages constructed in a virtual environment. The subjects also wore soundproof earmuffs to prevent hearing the surrounding sounds.First, a virtual arrow was displayed and arranged at the beginning point of the passage. The subjects were asked to memorize the direction indicated by the virtual arrow. After memorization was completed, the subjects were asked to walk toward the end of the passage. Upon reaching the end of the passage, the entire passage environment was removed with only the ground left, and two different colored virtual arrows appeared instead. One of the two arrows was black, indicating the traveling direction at the end point of the passage. The other arrow was red, and the subjects could change the direction of the arrow using the trigger of the hand controller.The subject was then asked to adjust the direction of the red arrow to the same direction as that of the first arrow memorized at the beginning of the passage. The difference between the direction of the red arrow adjusted by the subjects and the direction of the arrow arranged at the beginning point of the passage was calculated as the evaluation values of misshift of the sense of direction.In this experiment, a straight passage and twelve curved passages with different total turning angles (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165, and 180 degrees) were set as the experimental conditions. Each condition was presented twice in a random order for each subject.The results of the experiment showed that the values of misshift of the sense of direction were significantly larger in the curved passage conditions with total turning angles of 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, and 165 degrees than in the straight-aisle conditions. This result suggested that the sense of direction tends to misshift in a curved passage in which the total turning angle was between 90 and 165 degrees.

There are many middle areas in cities, such as open terraces and pilotis, at the boundary between public and private spaces. Urban street space is full of diversity and flexibility as a middle area between the public and private, with space created as by-products that protrude into the street and storefronts that are open to the street. Watanabe focused on the composition and content of the middle area in the storefronts of shopping streets and classified the middle area into two types: the “intrusion” and “extrusion.” This study focused on the offset of street-facing storefronts in the middle area. This study aimed to analyze the subject’s sensory street center position and gain insights into street planning in the shopping district. The subjects wore a head-mounted display (HMD) and experimented with immersive virtual reality (VR). Ten healthy college students in their twenties participated in the experiment. The width of the street was set to 6m, and buildings were created to flank the street. In the building on one side, a middle area was set to face the street. Four middle areas were created by multiplying two offset values (1m and 2m) and two unevenness directions (concave and convex), respectively. One of the four types of middle areas was arranged on one side of the buildings in each condition.The street was flowing so that the subjects felt it at a speed of 0.5 m/sec. Furthermore, to consider the differences in the criteria for determining the central axis among the subjects, a street space without a middle area was also created as the base space. While the street space flowed from front to back, the subject started from the edge of the building on one side and walked to the center of the buildings with his legs. The coordinates in the width direction of the position where the subject finally stopped, feeling that he had reached the center, were extracted and recorded as the coordinates of the sensory center. The following two findings were obtained from the analysis of the experimental results. When the middle area was retracted, the subject’s sensory center position depended on the side of the middle area. In addition, we found that the subject’s sensory center position depended on the side of the middle area. In the future, using the width of the middle area as a variable, we will experiment with the relationship between the base and concave conditions, which produced significance in this experiment, and discover proof that subjects indicate the public/private boundary of the middle area.

Bollards are poles that are placed at the intersection of a roadway and a sidewalk to prevent vehicles from entering. They are mainly installed to alert motorists and are rarely used to control pedestrians. However, given their morphological characteristics, bollards should be able to play a role in physically and psychologically controlling pedestrian behavior.This study focuses on the deterrent effect of bollards on pedestrians, preventing them from running into the roadway. We have developed an experimental method to reproduce situations where people are likely to run into the roadway using immersive virtual environment technology. It was difficult to quantitatively analyze the behavioral characteristics of such situations using conventional methods. In addition, we conducted experiments on subjects using the developed experimental method to verify the effect of linearly placed bollards on pedestrians to deter them from running into the roadway. This study aims to obtain knowledge that will help improve the environment and prevent accidents caused by pedestrians walking into the roadway.A total of ten students (seven men and three women) participated in the experiment. The subject experienced the virtual environment through the head-mounted display (HMD). Wireless intercommunication allows the subject to move freely in the virtual environment, and the specification of the experimental route can be changed according to the subject's location information. The experimental route consisted of a series of bends and T-intersections. The area at the end of the T-intersection was divided into a sidewalk and a roadway. A red ball moving at 1.7m/s was presented in this experimental route. The ball randomly entered or did not enter the roadway beyond the T-intersection. We had subjects chase a red ball and induced them to run into the roadway.A total of 16 conditions were set by combining four variables: the presence of bollards (bollards or no bollards), the presence of a motorcycle (motorcycle or no motorcycle), a ball rolling into the roadway (entry, no entry), and ball height (0.1m, 1.4m). We analyzed the change in speed and location information when the subjects ran into the roadway. In analyzing the experimental data, three analysis items were defined: "maximum deceleration," which indicates the degree of deceleration in front of the bollard, "deceleration point," which is the distance between the bollard and the position where the maximum deceleration occurred, and "safety check rate," which is the rate of head movement to pay attention to the surroundings. As a result of the verification, the following findings were obtained. The linear arrangement of bollards between the roadway and the sidewalk reduces the speed of movement in the direction of running from the sidewalk onto the roadway. The preceding effect was more strongly confirmed in the group of subjects who did not run onto the roadway. These results suggest that it is possible to encourage people to slow down by making the bollards visible from a distance.

This research is based on the hypothesis that by adding external factors to the virtual green space viewed through a head-mounted display, which only provides visual information, the virtual green space will be perceived as more realistic, and the relaxation effect will be the same as in a real green space. In the experiment, the subjects were asked to type on a computer and then experience a virtual green space through a head-mounted display, either only visually or with information about human senses added as an external factor. Afterwards, the subjects were asked to evaluate how they felt about the virtual greening space through a questionnaire using the SD method. The results showed that the addition of external factors to people’s senses in a virtual green space with only visual information had little effect on the sense of reality. However, it was found that the external factors improved the relaxation and calmness.

Bollards are sidewalk poles that can control vehicle entry and convey a sense of safety to pedestrians. Bollards’ shapes and sizes have often been determined by their landscape and use applications because no rule determines their shape. This study examined the sense of safety that bollard arrays give to pedestrians. It aimed to gain useful knowledge about planning bollards’ installation suitably for their location. The experiment was conducted using immersive virtual reality (VR). Our subjects experienced a virtual environment including bollard arrays near the boundary between a sidewalk and a roadway with cars. In each trial, participants had to adjust the bollard arrays’ height to convey a sense of safety when the car passed in front of them. One of our key findings from this experiment was that the bollard height necessary to make subjects feel safe increased as the gap between bollards widened.

The experiment was conducted that a maze with several virtual person figures, the route was set in a virtual environment, and a route guidance sign is displayed there. The three conditions of display were; height of the sign, congestion of the maze and height of the virtual figures treated as experimental variables. We analyzed the head movement recorded by the head-mounted display to evaluate how the subjects obtain surrounding information when experimental variables change. As a result, it was concluded that the smaller the difference between the height of the sign and the height of an obstacle (human) existing on the route, the more stable and easier to walk. Therefore, when providing route guidance in the real space using AR technology in the future, it is easy to walk by displaying the route guidance signs at a height close to the obstacle.

In this study, we examined the effects of changes in path width on distance perception and gaze position. The subjects experienced the straight path constructed in the virtual environment through the pseudo walking by foot stepping. Distance perception was quantified by comparing the memorized distances with the replay results. The gaze position was analyzed by measuring the gaze point of the subjects walking on the path. As a result, when the path width was widened, the path was perceived short, and when the path width was narrowed, the path was perceived to the same extent. And it was suggested that the gaze position of the subject who perceived the distance as short moved to the back of the path.

This study investigated the effects of changing the ceiling height, which is one of the fundamental components of rooms, on the sense of time via a subject experiment using virtual environmental technology. In three rooms with different type of ceiling heights changing, a ball was created that moved left and right in front of the subject's eyes. Subjects were asked to memorize sensory the time it took for the ball to move one round trip (20 s), and to reproduce that time in the condition that the ball was invisible. By comparing the time reproduced by the subjects with the actual elapsed time, we quantified the length of the sense of time in each room.

This study examined whether visual stimuli of peripheral vision can be used to change one’s sense of time without interfering with work on a screen. This study focused on the periodicity of visual stimuli and investigated the effects of periodic visual stimuli on one’s sense of time. Results of the first experiment revealed that the negative effect of periodic visual stimuli of peripheral vision on tempo-unconscious tasks is small. For the second experiment, results suggest that the sense of time increases in proportion to a periodicity of visual stimuli of peripheral vision and it is the longest at a frequency of 60 times per minute. These findings might help to create methods that can intentionally change one’s sense of time and improve work efficiency.

<p>In this study, we conducted two experiments using immersive virtual environment technology to test the relationship between the shape of the "Leading Passage" and the perceived ceiling height of the "High Ceiling Room". In order to quantify the amount of psychological height of the ceiling, we implemented a method to adjust the height of the ceiling up or down by the subject's own manipulation.</p><p> </p><p>In Experiment 1 , subjects were asked to walk through six different shapes of "Leading Passage" - "going straight," "going up," "going down," "going through," "turning left," and "turning right" - to "High Ceiling Room" and asked to adjust the ceiling height of the room. The results were as follows.</p><p>• Connection or Un-connection of "Leading Passage" led to a change in the amount of psychological ceiling height perceived in the "High Ceiling Room".</p><p>• The shape of "Leading Passage" led to a change in the amount of psychological ceiling height perceived in the "High Ceiling Room".</p><p>• The amount of psychological ceiling height perceived in the "High Ceiling Room" is lower after passing through an upward "Leading Passage" than after passing through a flat "Leading Passage".</p><p>• </p><p>In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to walk through three different shapes of "Leading Passage" - "going straight," "going up," "going down," - to "High Ceiling Room" and asked to adjust the ceiling height of the room. The results were as follows.</p><p>• As in Experiment I, the amount of psychological ceiling height perceived in the "High Ceiling Room" varied depending on the shape of "Leading Passage".</p><p>• The amount of psychological ceiling height perceived in the "High Ceiling Room" is lower after passing through an upward "Leading Passage" than after passing through a downward "Leading Passage".</p><p>• When walking in an upward "Leading Passage", subjects look more upward in the environment than when walking in a downward "Leading Passage", at the point where the ceiling of the "High Ceiling Room" begins to be visible over the exit of "Leading Passage".</p><p>• When walking in a downward "Leading Passage", subjects look more upward in the environment than when walking in an upward "Leading Passage", at the exit of "Leading Passage".</p><p> </p><p>In both experiments, subject tends to perceived the ceiling height of the "High Ceiling Room" higher after they walked through a flat or a downward "Leading Passage" and perceived the ceiling height of the "High Ceiling Room" lower after they walked through an upward "Leading Passage", than in the case without "Leading Passage" .These results indicate that the ceiling height in the "High Ceiling Room" can be controlled by passing through the approach space with a suitable shape.</p>

<p>This thesis investigates the mental stress of unevenness caused by pillars, doors and intersections in the passage, by the experiment using electrodermal activity measuring and virtual reality technology. First result is that there is no difference in magnitude of the mental stress depending on sizes of the unevenness. Second result is that the reaction appears faster by yellowing the unevenness. Third result is that the mental stress was felt when the continuity where something appeared at regular intervals was interrupted, rather than when something appeared at regular intervals.</p>

<p> This research focuses on the relationship between the manipulation of human spatial localization criteria and the accuracy of place identification. Through two experiments using virtual environment techniques, we quantitatively examine the effect of misdirection of street orientation time it takes to identify a previously sighted street. By clarifying the effect of those two on identification time, useful knowledge will be obtained about sign planning and street designing for constructing urban space challenging to get lost. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of street directional indication right or wrong on the identification time of a previously pass street through two experiments using virtual environment techniques.</p><p> Experiments were conducted by presenting to the subjects several street movies recorded with a 360-degree-stereoscopic camera via head-mounted-display. In these experiments, we offer walk-through movies of the same street twice to subjects in the virtual space and measure the time until the subject judges that they have passed through the place once as the identification time. And we prepare a group of subjects who directed the street in the same direction as the first time and a group of subjects who directed the street direction in a different direction.</p><p> In Experiment I, one street movie, named "measurement street, " was presented twice. Experiment I has two experimental conditions with one variable.</p><p> ・Two types of street orientation instruction: "the-same-direction-group, " was instructed the street orientation in the same direction as the first and "the-different-direction-group, " was instructed the street orientation on the different direction from the first experience.</p><p> On the other hand, in Experiment II, two types of measurement streets (measurement street I and II) were presented twice during one term of the Experiment, as in Experiment I. Experiment II has four experimental conditions created by combining the following two variables.</p><p> ・Two types of streets: there are measurement street I without landmark and measurement street II with a landmark.</p><p> ・Two types of street orientation instruction: "the-same-direction-group," was instructed the street orientation in the same direction as the first and "the-different-direction-group," was instructed the street orientation on the different direction from the first.</p><p> What both experiments had in common was that the subjects were asked to stop the video as soon as they recognized the current street as the same street they had once passed. Streetscape identification speed was calculated the time it took the subjects to stop the video, to determine that they had previously experienced the same street.</p><p> As the main result of two experiments, the identification speed of "the different direction group" was significantly slower than the speed of "the same direction group." Furthermore, on "measurement-street II" where the landmark is visible, the groups' identification speeds were significantly faster than the speed on measurement-street I, without landmark.</p><p> These results indicate that in the street without a characteristic element, it becomes hard to identify the street passed before by instructing the direction different from the first time. However, it also indicates that the effect immediately is disturbed by a characteristic element like a landmark.</p><p> In the future, we would like to examine the effect of the misdirection of spatial localization criteria on location identification by taking into account the subjects' memory retention ability and also by examining the effect of the presence or absence of landmarks on the accuracy of location identification.</p>

<p>A T-corner and a step were constructed in the virtual environment. Three experimental conditions were created by changing the distance between the step and the corner, 0 mm, 700mm, and 1400mm. In conditions of 0mm and 700mm, the subjects tend to gaze the pedestrian by decreasing the gazing duration to wall rather than step, and foot tracks tend to become inefficient. Since this tendency could not be found in the condition of 1400mm, it was suggested that the step can be safely and efficiently walked.</p>

<p>This research focuses on the relationship between the spatial self-position-detection with landmarks and the function of the visual field. 28 college students participated in the experiment were asked to move the center of the landmarks in virtual environment. By measuring the difference between the stopped positions under each condition and the exact central point of landmarks, the accuracy of the spatial position detection was quantified. The results indicate that the central visual field within 5 degrees and the visual field of 15 to 20 degrees of vision centered on the fixation point play a large role in the self-position-detection. </p>

This study implemented virtual environment technology to examine how the spacing and height characteristics of a column-type background arrangement affected collision-prediction accuracy for an approaching object set in vast virtual space. Participants were divided into two groups for testing, including the “safety-oriented type” and “accurate judgment type.” Results showed that participants in the safety-oriented type group tended to make collision/non-collision judgments at earlier stages, when columns were higher and more narrow. On the other hand, subjects in the “accurate judgment type” group tended to make accurate collision judgements at later stages (i.e., as column spacing increased).

The purpose of this study is to verify the intensities of physical activity of the assistant person who are helping the movement of a patient riding on a wheelchair. The effects of the body weight of the care recipient on the wheelchair and the obstacle on moving route on the intensities of physical activity were analyzed by the results of the behavioral experiment with the measurement of gas concentration in the exhaled breath.

This paper investigates the effective minimum size for cutting out the edge of the intersection for reducing the mental stress of the pedestrian appearing from an intersection, by the experiment using the electrodermal activity measuring method and the virtual reality technology. 30 college students as the participants were experienced the unlimited long virtual passage where the intersections would be appearing regularly and continuously, through a head mounted display. The width of the passage was set at two sizes, 1,600 mm and 2,000 mm. The result is that the mental stress for the crossing pedestrian could be reduce by applying a cutting out of more than 1,000 mm to the corner of the intersection. According to these results, it was suggested that cutting out the corner of the intersection of about 1,000 mm would give a certain effect on the worry-free passage design.

This paper investigates a psychological experiment was conducted for examine whether the openness feeling on height direction arising when entering a high ceiling room could be control by the bending pattern of leading passage. 32 college students as the participants walked around the virtual environment including the high ceiling rooms with the narrow passages. Seven experimental conditions are created by connecting six different shaped “narrow-passages” to one side of the “high ceiling room” or not connecting any approach. The result is that the ceiling height in the “high-ceiling-room” tends to adjust lower when connecting the “narrow-passage” of the upward slope than when connecting the straight “narrow-passage”. It is suggested that by adding a physical movement “climbing up an oblique road” could suppress openness feeling in the high ceiling room.

Recently, many route-navigation applications that combines AR (augmented reality technology) and a map have appeared, and it is possible to understand the route more intuitively. However, when using the navigation with AR, the vision of the user has been considerably limited because the route needs to be checked by superimposing the smartphone screen on the real street scape. In this research, the user&#x2019;s gazing pattern while using the conventional smartphone navigation and the AR navigation were compared and analyzed with eye movement tracking technology, for considering an efficient route guidance method that makes comprehensibility and safety compatible.

<p>This thesis investigates the effective minimum size for cutting out the edge of the intersection for reducing the mental stress of the pedestrian appearing from an intersection, by the experiment using the electrodermal activity measuring method and the virtual reality technology. 15 college students participated with this experiment. One result is that the mental stress for the crossing pedestrian could be reduce by applying a cutting out of more than 1,000 mm to the corner of the intersection. The other result that the mental stress can be more significantly reduced by applying cutting out of more than 2,000 mm. According to these results, it was suggested that cutting out the corner of the intersection of about 1,000 mm would give a certain effect on the safe passage design.</p>

&ldquo;Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE)&rdquo; could be useful for the field of architecture. This paper focused on the factors for a grasp of an accurate distance in the IVE. A total of 10 normal sight subjects were individually asked to match up their image distances to the standard distances, which were between the sphere and the subject in the IVE. We conclude that the image distances are close to the standard distances, when &ldquo;3m&rdquo; is the standard distance or the subject attention to the distance that is between the sphere and a floor.

&nbsp;There are spaces of various spatial configurations, living room, workspace and classroom. Each of them is adapted to the intended use. This study is focused on psychological boundaries that affect the specific spatial configuration. The perception of spatial configuration limits the behavior and scope of activities in physically and psychologically. Intentionally arranging the elements that produce psychological boundaries in space divide a certain space into several small spaces, it is possible to use in various purposes.<br>&nbsp;We propose the hanging wall as the element that produces psychological boundaries. We perform experiment in the method for immersion of subject into virtual reality space with wide view head mounted display (HMD). While the experiments, subjects walk to the subjective central position in virtual rectangular space. Four cameras are installed at each corners of real laboratory to track the movement of subjects and acquire the coordinate data. In addition, the angle sensor of three axis (InertiaCube 2+) is equipped in HMD, acquires the angle of rotation of subject's head. To tune subject's coordinate data and angle of rotation data to the image of virtual environment on HMD, subjects can walk and look around in virtual environment.<br>&nbsp;This study verified how sizes and positions of hanging wall influence on perception of spatial center in virtual rectangular space, through experiments with technology of immersive virtual environment. The summary of the important experimental results of virtual rectangular space of width 5400mm &times; depth 7200mm &times; ceiling height 3000mm is as follows.<br>&nbsp;1.) Subjective central position in virtual rectangular space could move backward from hanging walls by presenting hanging walls of height of 500mm or more, in comparison with by the presenting no hanging wall.<br>&nbsp;2.) Subjective central position in virtual rectangular space would move back more from hanging walls as the increasing heights of the hanging walls.<br>&nbsp;3.) Subjective central position in virtual rectangular space wouldn't move backward any more from hanging walls by exceeding 2000mm high of the hanging walls in rectangular space of ceiling height 3000mm.<br>&nbsp;4.) Subjective central position in virtual rectangular space would move backward and right or left from hanging walls, when presented hanging walls that are narrower than width of rectangular space are put aside toward the right and left wall.<br>&nbsp;The above experimental results revealed that subjective central position in virtual rectangular space qualitatively move by changing sizes and positions of hanging wall. Assuming that this movement of spatial central position caused by change in perception of spatial configuration, it suggests the possibility that perception of spatial configuration could be operated by presenting hanging walls.<br>&nbsp;Also, this devised experimental method that evaluated spatial central position by subject own self with changing spatial elements using technology of immersive virtual environment, it has possibility that various fields of research dealing with spatial trait and region would reference. There are various spatial elements that change perception of spatial configuration in the real living space. These experimental results suggested that textures and colors of walls influenced on perception of spatial central position. Henceforth further development on this devised experimental method, is necessary to verify how various spatial elements including hanging wall influence on user's perception of space.

本研究は，中心視の選択的な制限が階段下降における歩行速度に与える影響を検証しようとするものである．視野の任意の部分を遮蔽できる実験装置を開発し，この実験装置を用いて被験者の中心視を制限し，階段下降実験を実施した．実験結果より以下のことが明らかになった．平坦な廊下が前後に接続する階段の，下りはじめの2段とその手前の1 mの平坦な廊下を含む「階段下りはじめ」のエリアにおいて，中心視を選択的に制限した条件における歩行速度が，中心視を制限しない他の視野条件における歩行速度に比べて，有意に遅くなっていた．すなわち，この「階段下りはじめ」のエリアを速やかに歩行するためには，中心視による視覚情報の獲得が機能していなければならないことが示された．

In this study, a system for simulating low-vision experience was developed by using immersive virtual reality technology. The proposed system consisted of a wide-view head-mounted display and an eye tracker that could modify the display in concert with real-time fixation patterns to restrict an arbitrary area of the human visual field. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the validity of the proposed system. Subjects were asked to walk through a small maze under two visual conditions in which 10 degrees of their central visual field was restricted artificially with black circles using the proposed system. Under one of the visual conditions, the restriction moved synchronously with the subjects' eye movement so that the 10 degrees of the central fovea was always restricted despite eye movement; on the other hand, under the other condition, the restriction could not move. The experiment results indicated that the time for walking through the entire maze under the visual condition with 10 degrees of the central visual field restricted in synchronization with eye movement was longer than that under the condition in which 10 degrees of the fixed central area of the screen were restricted. Further, the amplitude of the walking trajectory on a straight pass under the visual condition with 10 degrees of the central visual field restricted in synchronization with eye movement was higher than that under the condition in which 10 degrees of the fixed central area of the screen was restricted. The influence of the eye-following movement of the restricting black circles and the validity of the proposed system were investigated.

&nbsp;An experiment was performed to clarify effects of intermittent daylight exposure in a resting-space on arousal level and task-performance in work place. Daylight flowing into the resting-space was controlled with window-blinds. Results indicated, 1) during two working sessions, 11:00-12:00 and 16:00-17:00, the arousal levels analyzed from the frequency of blink burst significantly decreases at the circadian condition more than the non-circadian condition. 2)At some working sessions of the circadian condition, the ratio of correct answer for &ldquo;Arithmetic&rdquo;, one of computer tasks, significantly decreases after the resting time more than the one before the resting time.

人間の行動でも特に「歩行」という現象は、空間のデザインや構造だけでなく、身につけている衣類や履物、心身の状態によって影響を受け、個人差も大きくなる。本研究では、小走りや回避歩行などの歩行状態および階段や斜面などの路面性状の場所を歩く際の身体加速度を計測し、高速フーリエ変換によって周波数スペクトルを得て、その時系列推移を特徴ベクトルとするデータ群を作成する。このデータ群からサポートベクターマシンによる識別器を得ることで、歩行状態や路面性状によって異なる特徴を示す身体加速度の識別がどの程度の精度で可能となるかを明らかにする。

We examined the function of the central visual field by using the newly developed VR system that was consisted with a wide-view HMD and an eye-tracker for restricting an arbitrary area of human visual field. Subjects were asked to walk through short virtual mazes under different visual condition in which 10 or 20 degree of their central visual field was restricted artificially with the system. Results indicated 1) Times for walking through the entire maze under the visual condition with 10 degrees of the central visual field restricted in synchronization were longer than times under the condition in which 10 degrees of the fixed central area of screen were restricted. 2) For walking through the area with two dead ends, walking times under the condition in which 20 degrees of the central visual field were restricted were longer than under the condition in which 10 degrees of the central visual field were restricted. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.

We examined the effects of spatial variables on the evaluation rate for interactive robots presented with Augmented Reality technology (AR-Robots). Results indicated the followings. AR-Robots in front of subjects get higher evaluation rate while they were presented on the eye-height of the subjects than on the desktop or the floor. The suitable distance for the subjects while they were approaching and speaking to AR-Robots was approximately 1300 mm. And the distance was strongly influenced by the conversation content especially for some subject had an introvert personality, while the distance was influenced by the appearance of AR-Robots for the extrovert subjects.

We examined the effects of visual noises caused by wall-moving robots on task-performance. Subjects attended to Calculating-task and Inputting-task on a desktop display while the projected black circles as visual noises were moving on the front wall. Results indicated 1) Answering-time for Calculating-task was increased while black circles were moving in the area within 35-degrees from Gazing-point for the task. 2) Just after black circles appeared on the horizontal area spread on Gazing-point, Answering-time for the first quest of Calculating-task was increased. 3) While black circles were moving on the same horizontal area on Gazing-point, Eye-blinking rate was increased.

視線追尾装置を内蔵した広角視野ヘッドマウントディスプレイを用いて,人間の中心視野および周辺視野の機能を解明するための実験システムを開発した.この実験システムは,眼球運動に同調して動く遮蔽物を,ヘッドマウントディスプレイ内の仮想空間に乗算するように構成されており,これによって,歩行や頭部運動などの被験者の行動を抑制することなく,特定の視野部分を遮蔽することができるようになる.遮蔽によって生じる行動の不具合を精査することで視野の各部分が担っている機能を導き出す.仮想空間内に作り出した迷路において探索歩行実験を行い,実験システムの実用性を確認した.

In the near future, there will be several types of the leading robots that lead us a way to a destination in our daily life spaces. Some experiments were conducted in order to clarify the characters behaviors of human in follow-walking after leading robots in a real corridor. Following results were obtained. 1) The distance to the robots were kept in from 900 to 1100(mm). And 2) Subjects tended to gaze at the short size robot (300mm height) more frequently than the middle size one (600mm height). 3) When the leading speed is lower (0.34m/s), subjects tended to gaze at the short size robot (300mm height) more frequently than the tall size one (900mm height). 4) The characteristic fixation pattern was found that was gazing at the midair area above the head of the robots.

To clarify the operating station and the speed of the robot where man doesn't feel the obstruct feeling to the robot, the work was done from the following two approaches.<br>1. When the robot moved around the man, the obstruct feeling that man felt was measured. And, the relation between the obstruct feeling, to the passing speed, the position of the robot, and the moving direction of the robot was clarified.<br>2. Man was arranged at a position near the wall and a position far from the wall, and the obstruct feeling to the robot that moved was measured. The relation between the obstruct feeling that man felt and the space was clarified.<br>As a result, it has been understood the obstruct feeling compared with the robot is in proportion with the distance between the man and the robot. Moreover, it was clarified that the obstruct feeling rose when was arranged at a position far from the wall.

Artificial controls for the brightness of our life spaces suitably based on the biological rhythm are expected to be an effective treatment in solving the mental or physical health problems. In this study, an experiment was performed to clarify the biologic effects of the short time exposure of Bright light in the morning in the resting space. The brightness in the resting space was controlled rhythmically in order to affect human performance and individual circadian rhythms. Based on the results of the experiment, the following effects were suggested. After the short time exposure of the Bright light in the morning in the resting space, 1) The amount of secretions of the saliva cortisol increases in the next morning (9:30) more than the first day, and that after non-exposure, 2) Sleep efficiency measured from the body motion during sleeping increases at the night after the short time exposure.

本研究では，DIYリフォームに関する文献調査および賃貸住宅のリフォーム経験のある居住者へのインタビューによる実態調査の分析結果を通して，公的賃貸集合住宅の改善のための条件と5つのDIYリフォームモデルを組み立てた。5つのDIYリフォームモデルを実際の住戸でDIY作業によって実験試作し，作業時間・費用のデータを収集し，合わせて各モデルの特徴に対する検証と評価を行った。その結果，作業性や費用・期間の観点から各モデルが高い実現性を示した。さらに居住者の立場から，各モデルとも古い公的賃貸住宅を個性化するという点で高い評価を得ることができた。ただし，制度変更などの社会システムの課題は今後の検討とした。

中心視と周辺視、それぞれの視覚機能を個別に抽出することのできる実験装置の開発を行った。この実験装置は、広範囲の視野を確保しながら任意の視野部分を制限することができるように仕組まれたもので、これによって特定の視野部分を制限し、制限したことによって生じる行動の不具合を精査することで制限された視野部分が本来担っていた機能を導き出す。これまで提案されてきた実験手法が概ね、被験者の能動的な行動を拘束しなければ計測自体が不可能であったのに対し、今回開発した実験装置では、歩行や頭部運動など、被験者の行動を抑制することなく視野機能の計測を実施することができる。すなわち、この実験装置を用いれば、日常的な行為に伴って能動的に発現しているであろう視野機能や、それぞれの協応関係の抽出することができる。各種計測と廊下・階段における簡易な歩行実験を行い、実験装置の実用性と信頼性を確認した。さらに歩行実験からは、階段歩行時における中心視と周辺視の強い協応関係の存在を示唆する実験結果を得ることができた。