地下鉄駅における誘導サイン認知と経路探索行動に関する VR 実験
A VR experiment on Guide Sign Recognition and Wayfinding Behavior in Subway Station○Shuqi HAO*1，兼田 敏之 *2
Shuqi HAO＊1 and Toshiyuki KANEDA＊2*1 名古屋工業大学大学院工学研究科

博士前期課程

工学専攻

Master Course Student, Nagoya Institute of Technology.
*2 名古屋工業大学大学院工学研究科 教授 工博
Prof., Nagoya Institute of Technology, Dr. Eng.

キーワード：経路探索行動; 地下鉄駅; VR 実験; アイトラッキング; 誘導サイン; サイン認知

Keywords: wayfinding behavior; subway station; virtual reality experiment; eye tracking; guide sign; sign recognition.

1. Introduction

more than 0.3s. The duration time from when the pedestrian’sIn urban space represented by subway stations, people are often

sightline touches the sign to the understanding of the sign

easily lost because of the increasingly complex lines and spaces.

information is defined as the reading time.

Because the guide sign provides the direction of the destination,
the layout of guide sign determines the wayfinding behaviour ofpedestrians in the subway station.
There has been a lot of research on sign recognition. Ohno’sgroup has studied the sign detectability in the subway stationconsidering pedestrians’ flow direction in real experiment1) 2).
However, in the case of real-space experiments, it is difficult toaccurately capture and record sign recognition and wayfinding
behavior.
The advantages of VR equipment that can record data
accurately and promptly provides us with new ideas for studying
sign recognition and wayfinding behaviour. However, within aFigure 1. Sign recognition process during wayfinding behavior
3. Construction of a VR experiment system
Like the previous VR experiment, we also choose the Nagoya
Sakae, Oasis 21 Square, and Sakae Station to build a spatialmodel on Unity (ver2019.2.8f).
Table1. The conditions of VR experiment

range of 9 meters, people's sense of distance to the object isshorter than the actual distance to the object in the VR
environment, and the difference is less than one meter 3).

Subjects

Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider whether VR experiments
can study the distance and angle between pedestrians and signs
within 45 meters.
In this study, using the VR equipment with the eye-tracking
function, we conducted a VR experiment the previous article
mentioned 4). This article reports the results of the VRexperiment about the sign recognition and wayfinding behaviour

Experiment
Procedure

especially focusing on the impact of the sign layout on thewalking trajectory, stop points and duration time of pedestrians.
2. Process of sign recognition
When pedestrians use signs as a clue to find their destination, theprocess of sign recognition can be roughly divided into four

Possible
Motions

steps as Figure 1 5). The time takes for the acquired visual
information to move the mind is 0.3s 6). Pedestrians willrecognize the sign existing if their sightline touches the sign
日本建築学会情報システム技術委員会
第 44 回情報･システム･利用･技術シンポジウム論文集， 487-490 ， 2021 年 12 月，京都
Proceedings of the 44th Symposium on Computer Technology of Information ，Systems and Applications ， AIJ ， 487-490 ， Dec. ， 2021 ， Kyoto

Assumed
Situations

The students from Nagoya
Institute of Technology:
2021/7/15
Date
30 people（M:16, F:14）~2021/7/28(About 15 minutes per person)
1) Explain the operation of the VR Controller Trackpad tothe subjects. And adjust the pupil distance of the VR HMD
lens according to the pupil distance of the subjects.
2) Set up a practice space to familiarize the subjects with theprocess of the VR experiment. Start the formal experiment
after the subjects accustomed sufficiently.
3) Tell the subject a goal and ask him to reach and arrive at
the goal before starting a case. Take off the HMD and take arest after each case. (Each subject need to task three cases)
4) Record a video of the scene of the subject's field of view
during the experiment.
5) Do a questionnaire and ask whether the subject is familiar
with this subway station space. And check whether signs
indicating the goal were recognized while watching thevideo after each case.
・Forward / Backward ・ Go to right /left ・Up /Down
the stairs (VR Controller Trackpad)・Look up /down
・ Look left /right (VR HMD)・Read signs (VR HMD) andpress the trigger button on the VR controller.
・It is assumed that there are no other people in the square.
・ This experiment didn’t consider underground standard
lighting situations that may affect the sign recognition.

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Table2. The 6 cases implemented in the VR experiment
Strat Point-> Goal Point
Meijyo Line Platform (Sakae Sta.)-> Seto Line Tickets (Sakaemachi Sta.)
Seto Line Tickets (Sakaemachi Sta.)-> Meijyo Line Platform (Sakae Sta.)
Sakae Sat. East Gate-> Aichi Arts Center Entrance
Seto Line Tickets (Sakaemachi Sta.)->Sakae Sat. East Gate
Sakae Sta. East Gate-> Bus Terminal Tickets
Meijyo Line Platform (Sakae Sta.)-> Sakae Sat. Exit 4A

Case number
Case1(upstairs)
Case2(downstairs)
Case3(downstairs)
Case4(upstairs)
Case5(upstairs)
Case6(downstairs)

4.3 CALCULATION OF SIGN DETECTABLE RATIO
Sign detectable ratio was studied in a hemispherical area the wasdivided into 729 cubes as Figure 4. And the sign detectable ratio
in each cube was calculated by Formula 1.

Subjects were asked to press the trigger button on the VRcontroller when they got the goal direction from a sign. The
experimental conditions are shown in Table 1 and Table 2.
Figure 4. Area for calculation of sign detectable ratio
4. Recording data and calculation of sign detectable ratio
𝐴𝐴+𝐶

4.1DEFINITION OF SIGN RELATIVE COORDINATES

Sign Detectable Ratio in Each Cube =In this study, we defined the Sign Relative Coordinates to study

A/C: the number of Sign Relative Coordinates of state A/C in each cube

(1)

the sign recognition as Figure 2. The “reading distance” is thedistance between the pedestrian and the sign when the sign is

5. Result and analyses

read.

5.1 OVERVIEW OF EXPERIMENT AND WALKING
TRAJECTORY
Sign

Dɡ
walkingdirectionθSign Relative Coordinates (D, θ, g)

We visualized the walking trajectory and walking speed of the

θ：The angle between the direction ofpedestrian’s motion and the direction
to the sign in the horizontal angle
ɡ：The angle between the direction ofpedestrian’s motion and the directionto the sign in the vertical angle
D: The distance between thepedestrian’s position and a sign.

subjects in the VR experiment. Figure 5 shows the walking

Figure 2. Sign Relative Coordinates in sign recognition
4.2 THE SETTING FOR RECORDING DATA
There’re three micro-behavior states of pedestrians defined inthis VR experiment: C, a sign is visible; B, a sign is touched bysightline; A, a sign is touched by sightline for more than 0.3
seconds. The states were judged every 0.3 seconds, and the Sign
Relative Coordinates of signs in state A and state B wererecorded. Figure 3 shows the definition of reading time and thechanges in micro-behavior states during wayfinding behavior.

trajectory and walking speed of Case1. We defined theprobability that the sign indicating the goal is read as the signread rate. The sign-read rate directly affects the walking
trajectory. We can't find the relationship between walking speed
and the sign layout.
5.2 ANALYSES OF STOP POINT
Figure 6 shows the location, number, and duration time ofpedestrians’ stop points in Case1. We defined five space types tostudy the effect of sign layout on the number of stop points (NSP)
and average duration time (ADT): A, sign; B, junction; C,junction +sign; D, junction +stairs; E, junction +stairs +sign.
(The plus “+” means that several elements exist at the same time,and “sign” represents the sign indicating the goal)
We used a square equivalent to an area of 200 square meters
to select as many points as possible in the different type spaces
and calculated the average value of each unit square. There arethree findings of the stop points and average duration time:
1. Stop points are mainly distributed in three places, around thesign indicating the goal, at the junction, and the stairs.
2. The number of stop points in front of signs is the most, and inspace type E (junction + stairs + sign) is the least (Table 3).

Figure 3. Measurement of micro-behavior states andreading time

報告 H84

3. The average duration time in space type B (junction) is thelongest, and in space type E (junction + stairs + signs) is theshortest (Table 3).

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Table 3. Stop points and duration time of each space type in theVR experimentSpaceType
Numberof Stop
PointsAverage
Duration
Time (s)a: Hanging Sign (n=46)

A(sign)B(junction)

C(junction+signs)

D(junction+stairs)

E(junction+stairs+signs)

A: Hanging Sign indicating

98

36

1343

3

b: Wall・Pillar Sign (n=30)

2.7

6.3

2.9

4.6

2.1

the Goal(n=15)

Seto Line Tickets

B: Wall・Pillar Sign
indicating the Goal (n=10)

5.3 COMPARISON WITH REAL-SPACE EXPERIMENT
We calculated the detectable ratio and cumulative percentage ofhorizontal angles to compare with the real-space experiment(Figure 7). The value of cumulative percentage obtained fromthe VR experiment is very similar to the real-space.

B1
B2

Sakae Sta. East GateHigashiyama
Line Platform
walking speed (m/s)

B3

Meijyo Line Platform

Average Walking Distance：279m
Average Walking Time：308s
Average Walking Speed: 0.91 m/s

Figure 5. Sign-read rate, walking trajectory, and walking speedof Case1in the VR experiment (N=15)
Figure 7 shows that the similarity between VR experiment
data and the real-space experiment data has slightly deviatedwith the increase of the horizontal angle. Especially for wall sign
Figure 7. Sign detectable ratio and cumulative percentage
frequency from VR experiment and the real-space experiment of(a)all sign type, (b)hanging sign, and (c) wall/pillar sign

報告 H84and pillar sign, the data in the range of [40°, 60°) is larger thanthe value of the real-space experiment. We think that is becauseof too few sample points.

－ 489 －5.3 ANALYSES OF READING TIME AND READING

NSP: Number of Stop Points

DISTANCE

ADT: Average Duration TimeWe analyzed the effect of sign type on reading time and reading

a: Hanging Sign (n=46)

distance. The sign type does not affect the reading time (FigureA: Hanging Sign indicating8), but it will affect its reading distance (Figure 9). The hanging

the Goal(n=15)

sign is the farthest, and the floor sign is the closest.

b: Wall・Pillar Sign (n=30)

Figure 8 shows the reading time in three sign types. Morethan 80% of reading time points are within 3.6 seconds, 90%

Seto Line Tickets

B: Wall・Pillar Sign
indicating the Goal (n=10)

are within 4.2 seconds, and 95% are within 5.0 seconds in all
C, NSP:7
ADT: 2.0s

sign types.
Figure 9 shows the reading distance in three sign types.
More than 80% of reading distance points are within 17 meters,

C, NSP: 1
ADT: 1.1s

90% are within 23 meters, and 95% are within 27 meters inhanging sign. There are more than 80% reading distance points

B, NSP:30
ADT: 6.8s

within 6 meters, 90% within 11 meters, and 95% within 13meters in floor sign.

Meijyo Line Platform
B3E, NSP: 2
ADT: 1.8s

D, NSP: 54
ADT :3.1sFigure 8. Cumulative percentage of reading time

B2

B1

Higashiyama
Line Platform

Sakae Sta. East Gate

B, NSP: 55
ADT: 3.6s

A, NSP: 98
ADT: 2.7s

Figure 9. Cumulative percentage of reading distance
6.Concluding remarks
This article suggests the effectiveness of using VR equipmentwith eye tracking function to study sign recognition fromdistance and angle within 45 meters. And the sign type does notaffect the reading time, but it greatly affects its reading distance.
In addition, we studied sign recognition and wayfinding
behavior of pedestrians in the subway station. The sign-read rateaffects the walking trajectory directly. The sign layout will affectthe stop points and duration time of pedestrians in the subwaystation. An appropriate layout of the sign indicating the goal caneffectively reduce pedestrians' stop points and duration time.

報告 H84(Space Type)
A: sign
B: junction
C: junction + sign
D: junction + stairs
E: junction + stairs + sign

Figure 6. Location and number of stop points, and duration timeof each point of Case1in the VR experiment (N=15)
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