2018/02/25 by Ruggiero Lovreglio, Vicente A. González, Lovreglio, Ruggiero +13
Engineering · Social Sciences · Computer Science · #Evacuation and Crowd Dynamics #Disaster Management and Resilience #Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1802.09119
Enhancing evacuee safety is a key factor in reducing the number of injuries\nand deaths that result from earthquakes. One way this can be achieved is by\ntraining occupants. Virtual Reality (VR) and Serious Games (SGs), represent\nnovel techniques that may overcome the limitations of traditional training\napproaches. VR and SGs have been examined in the fire emergency context,\nhowever, their application to earthquake preparedness has not yet been\nextensively examined. We provide a theoretical discussion of the advantages and\nlimitations of using VR SGs to investigate how building occupants behave during\nearthquake evacuations and to train building occupants to cope with such\nemergencies. We explore key design components for developing a VR SG framework:\n(a) what features constitute an earthquake event, (b) which building types can\nbe selected and represented within the VR environment, (c) how damage to the\nbuilding can be determined and represented, (d) how non-player characters (NPC)\ncan be designed, and (e) what level of interaction there can be between NPC and\nthe human participants. We illustrate the above by presenting the Auckland City\nHospital, New Zealand as a case study, and propose a possible VR SG training\ntool to enhance earthquake preparedness in public buildings.\n