PRT simulation in an immersive virtual world

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2008

Authors

Cristina V. Lopes (Author) Other; Anton Popov (Author) Other; Lorraine Kan (Author) Other; Ricardo Morla (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: SIMUTools 2008 - 1st International ICST Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques for Communications, Networks and Systems

Final page: 57

1st International ICST Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques for Communications, Networks and Systems, SIMUTools 2008

3 March 2008 through 7 March 2008

Indexing

Scopus - 8 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Technology > Interface technology > Virtual reality

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-008-YFA

DOI: 10.4108/icst.simutools2008.3014

Abstract (EN): Immersive virtual world environments, such as Second LifeTM (SL), have the potential to dramatically improve the process of analyzing usability within technically correct system simulations, long before the system is built. We report our findings with the SL simulation of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system. The SL model and simulation were done according to the original technical specifications. In interacting with this simulation, the system designers were able to identify several usability issues that would have gone unnoticed in a non-immersive simulation environment. Namely: (1) a problem with the design of the offramp to the station; (2) further requirements for the design of the top of the vehicles, so that the suspended track is out of direct sight of the people inside; (3) further safety requirements for dealing with unexpected obstacles along the path. While all of these issues would have been identified upon deployment of the physical prototype, the contribution of our work is to show how usability issues like these can now be identified much earlier, using simulations in a virtual world. Copyright © 2008 ICST.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 7