An Evaluation of a Simulation System for Visitors in Exhibit Halls
摘要
Simulation systems for simulating visitors in exhibition halls are widely adopted for users to have a good experience in viewing valuable exhibits but also provide designers to find the appropriate layout for installing exhibits. In addition, such simulation systems provide opportunities for educational and gaming purposes by casual visitors. In this study, we implemented a visitor simulation system that animated virtual visitors in virtual small-scale exhibit halls in three-dimensional space. We recruited 32 participants in a user study to investigate how users evaluated the system in some essential aspects, such as interaction interface, visitor animation, and overall simulation results that were presented in charts (e.g., heat map of visitors’ trajectories and visitors’ walking speed, visitor transfer between exhibits, and distribution of visitors staying around exhibits). The results showed that presenting visitor behavior through 3D animations helped users recognize visitor behaviors. Editing exhibits with bimanual operation was better in terms of efficiency. Intuitive charts of simulation results helped users understand and evaluate whether the virtual visitors achieved expected overall activities.