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Using smartphone technology to deliver a virtual pedestrian environment: usability and validation

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Abstract

Various programs effectively teach children to cross streets more safely, but all are labor- and cost-intensive. Recent developments in mobile phone technology offer opportunity to deliver virtual reality pedestrian environments to mobile smartphone platforms. Such an environment may offer a cost- and labor-effective strategy to teach children to cross streets safely. This study evaluated usability, feasibility, and validity of a smartphone-based virtual pedestrian environment. A total of 68 adults completed 12 virtual crossings within each of two virtual pedestrian environments, one delivered by smartphone and the other a semi-immersive kiosk virtual environment. Participants completed self-report measures of perceived realism and simulator sickness experienced in each virtual environment, plus self-reported demographic and personality characteristics. All participants followed system instructions and used the smartphone-based virtual environment without difficulty. No significant simulator sickness was reported or observed. Users rated the smartphone virtual environment as highly realistic. Convergent validity was detected, with many aspects of pedestrian behavior in the smartphone-based virtual environment matching behavior in the kiosk virtual environment. Anticipated correlations between personality and kiosk virtual reality pedestrian behavior emerged for the smartphone-based system. A smartphone-based virtual environment can be usable and valid. Future research should develop and evaluate such a training system.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Anna Johnston and the students of the UAB Youth Safety Lab for their help with data collection, entry, and coding, and to the Digital Artefacts team for VR development and support. The research was supported by the Fogarty International Center and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number D43TW010310 and by Grants R21HD078371 and R01HD088415 (Grant Nos. R21 TW010310, R21 TW010310) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Ave. S., HHB 560, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1152, USA

    David C. Schwebel

  2. Digital Artefacts, LLC, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Joan Severson & Yefei He

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  1. David C. Schwebel
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  2. Joan Severson
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  3. Yefei He
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Correspondence to David C. Schwebel.

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Schwebel, D.C., Severson, J. & He, Y. Using smartphone technology to deliver a virtual pedestrian environment: usability and validation. Virtual Reality 21, 145–152 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-016-0304-x

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