"Vection field" for pedestrian traffic control

Abstract

Visual signs and audio cues are commonly used for pedestrian control in the field of general traffic research. Because pedestrians need to first acquire and then recognize such cues, time delays invariably occur between cognition and action. To better cope with this issue of delays, wearable devices have been proposed to control pedestrians more intuitively. However, the attaching and removing of the devices can be cumbersome and impractical. In this study, we propose a new visual navigation method for pedestrians using a "Vection Field" in which the optical flow is presented on the ground. The optical flow is presented using a lenticular lens, a passive optical element that generates a visual stimulus based on a pedestrian's movement without an electrical power supply. In this paper we present a design for the fundamental visual stimulus and evaluate the principle of our proposed method for directional navigation. Results revealed that the optical-flow of a stripe and random-dot pattern displaced pedestrian pathways significantly, and that implementation with a lenticular lens is feasible.