RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 An experimental test proposal to study human behaviour in fires using virtual environments
A1 de Lama, Carlos
A1 González Gaya, Cristina
A1 Sánchez Lite, Alberto
K1 Conducta humana
K1 Seguridad en el trabajo
K1 User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
K1 Virtual environment
K1 Behavior
K1 Fire
K1 Evacuation
K1 Ambiente virtual
K1 Comportamiento
K1 Fuego
K1 Evacuación
K1 6109.05 Comportamiento en la Organización
AB Human behavior in an emergency situation is the starting point for all evacuation planning projects. A better understanding of the decisions made by the occupants during an emergency can help to develop calculation tools that can create more efficient forms of visual and audio communication and implement better procedures for evacuating people. The difficulty in studying human behavior lies in the very nature of emergencies, as they are unpredictable, somewhat exceptional and not reproducible. Fire drills play a role in training emergency teams and building occupants, but they cannot be used to collect real data on people’s behavior unless the drill is so realistic that it could endanger the occupants’ safety. In the procedure described here, through the use of a Virtual Reality device that encompasses all critical phases, including user characterization data before the virtual experience, building design parameters and fire scenario, key variables of human behavior can be recorded in order to evaluate each user’s experience satisfactorily. This research shows that the average delay in starting an evacuation is greater than one minute, that anxiety levels and heart rates increase during a fire and that people do not pay attention to evacuation signals. Further analysis of the quantitative data may also provide the causes for decision-making. The use of devices that create realistic virtual environments is a solution for conducting “what if” tests to study and record the decisions taken by the users who undergo the experience in a way that is completely safe for them
PB MDPI
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/59021
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/59021
LA eng
NO Sensors, 2020, vol. 20, n. 12, 3607
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 16-jul-2024