Evaluation of Guidance Systems in Public Infrastructures Using Eye Tracking in an Immersive Virtual Environment

In this paper we present a novel method to evaluate guidance systems and navigation solutions for public infrastructures based on an immersive virtual environment in combination with a mobile eye tracking system. It opens new opportunities for wayfinding studies in public infrastructures already during the planning phase. Our approach embeds an interface for natural locomotion in the virtual environment offering significant advantages related to the user’s spatial perception as well as physical and cognitive demands. Accurate measurements of position, locomotion and gaze within the virtual environment enable a great simplification for the analysis of eye tracking data. We conducted a study with participants that included virtual and real world scenarios within a train station. First results exhibit similar behaviour of participants in the real and virtual environment, confirming the comparability and applicability of our method.