Differences in the gaze behaviours of pedestrians navigating between regular and irregular road patterns

Bing Liu, Weihua Dong, Zhicheng Zhan, Shengkai Wang, Liqiu Meng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

While a road pattern influences wayfinding and navigation, its influence on the gaze behaviours of navigating pedestrians is not well documented. In this study, we compared gaze behaviour differences between regular and irregular road patterns using eye-tracking technology. Twenty-one participants performed orientation (ORI) and shortest route selection (SRS) tasks with both road patterns. We used accuracy of answers and response time to estimate overall performance and time to first fixation duration, average fixation duration, fixation count and fixation duration to estimate gaze behaviour. The results showed that participants performed better with better accuracy of answers using irregular road patterns. For both tasks and both road patterns, the Label areas of interest (AOIs) (including shops and signs) received quicker or greater attention. The road patterns influenced gaze behaviour for both Road AOIs and Label AOIs but exhibited a greater influence on Road AOIs in both tasks. In summary, for orientation and route selection, users are more likely to rely on labels, and roads with irregular patterns are important. These findings may serve as the anchor point for determining how people's gaze behaviours differ depending on road pattern and indicate that labels and unique road patterns should be highlighted for better wayfinding and navigation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number45
JournalISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Eye tracking
  • Orientation
  • Road pattern
  • Shortest route selection

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