Visual engagement with urban street edges: insights using mobile eye-tracking

Seeing Is Believing: Using Eye-Tracking Devices in Environmental Research

OBJECTIVES

This article aims to provide methodological guidance for research that uses eye-tracking devices (ETDs) to study environment and behavior relationships.

BACKGROUND

Vision is an important human sense through which people acquire a large amount of environmental information. ETDs are tools for detecting eye/gaze behaviors, facilitating better understanding about how people collect visual information and how such information is related to emotions and psychological states. However, there is a lack of guidance for the application of ETDs to environment and behavior studies.

METHODS

A literature review was conducted on articles reporting empirical studies that used ETDs. The data were extracted and compiled, including information such as research questions, research design, types of ETDs, variables measured, types of physical environment (or visual stimuli), stimuli durations, data analysis methods, and so on.

RESULTS

Fifty articles were identified. The main research topics were related to urban and landscape environments, and architecture and interior spaces. Most of the research designs were experimental or quasi-experimental designs, with a few cross-sectional studies. The majority types of ETDs were screen-based ETDs, followed by mobile ETDs (glasses). Main variables were gaze fixations, fixation durations, and scan paths. Typical types of stimuli included images, videos, virtual reality, and real environments and/or objects.

CONCLUSIONS

Guidance for eye-tracking research on environment and behavior was developed based on the literature review results, to provide direction for determining research questions, selecting appropriate research designs, establishing participant inclusion and/or excluding criteria, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting research results.

Influence of Hospital Outdoor Rest Space on the Eye Movement Measures and Self-Rating Restoration of Staff

Objective

To investigate the effect of hospital outdoor rest space on the eye movement measures and self-rating restoration of staff.

Background

Relieving the pressure of hospital staff through exposure to hospital outdoor rest space is essential, but there is a scarcity of research on the impact of hospital outdoor rest space on the eye movement measures and self-rating restoration of staff, especially for large Chinese hospitals.

Methods

Cross-analysis was conducted based on the eye movement measures of 76 staff members obtained by eye movement tracking equipment in combination with the self-rating restoration scale and hospital outdoor rest space picture attributes (element proportion and position, brightness and saturation).

Results

The differences in eye movement measures of different staff attributes (occupation, age, and gender) were identified, and the effects of hospital outdoor rest space picture attributes on the eye movement measures and self-rating restoration scale of staff were summarized. A number of proposals were also formulated: hospital outdoor rest space should be set up close to the working area of the group of medical staff; attention should be paid to the actual needs of senior staff members and the work pressure of junior nurses; the exposure to natural environment should be increased and the proportion of hard artificial elements should be reduced; the natural environment should be placed in the visual center; the saturation and brightness of hospital outdoor rest space should be increased; and staff members should have access to the sky environment in a variety of ways.

Conclusion

The present study is an empirical study of evidence-based design on hospital outdoor rest space in China, and the results reveal the effects of hospital outdoor rest space on the eye movement measures and self-rating restoration of staff.

What Happens in Your Brain When You Walk Down the Street? Implications of Architectural Proportions, Biophilia, and Fractal Geometry for Urban Science

This article reviews current research in visual urban perception. The temporal sequence of the first few milliseconds of visual stimulus processing sheds light on the historically ambiguous topic of aesthetic experience. Automatic fractal processing triggers initial attraction/avoidance evaluations of an environment’s salubriousness, and its potentially positive or negative impacts upon an individual. As repeated cycles of visual perception occur, the attractiveness of urban form affects the user experience much more than had been previously suspected. These perceptual mechanisms promote walkability and intuitive navigation, and so they support the urban and civic interactions for which we establish communities and cities in the first place. Therefore, the use of multiple fractals needs to reintegrate with biophilic and traditional architecture in urban design for their proven positive effects on health and well-being. Such benefits include striking reductions in observers’ stress and mental fatigue. Due to their costs to individual well-being, urban performance, environmental quality, and climatic adaptation, this paper recommends that nontraditional styles should be hereafter applied judiciously to the built environment.

Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Use of Green Space by White-Collar Workers in Chinese Cities: A Study in Shenzhen

White-collar workers, with tremendous work pressure, excessive working hours, and poor physical condition, need green spaces not only to have physical exercise and social gatherings, but also to become closer to nature and to relieve stress for their mental health. In China, the 996 office schedule, working from 09:00 to 17:00 six days a week, has become popular in the workplace; under such high-intensity work and pressure, white-collar workers have limited time to access green space for leisure, and their use of green space for health benefits is compromised. This study selected Shenzhen Futian Central Business District to find out the green space use patterns and preferences of white-collar workers based on GPS data and questionnaire surveys. In addition, the value of green exposure in the time dimension was calculated according to individuals’ actual behaviors. Based on cluster analysis, this study summarized the typical green space use patterns of three groups of white-collar workers, which reflects the hidden inequity of white-collar groups who are subjected to varying degrees of spatiotemporal constraints in using green space. This paper puts forward three directions for the optimization of green space allocation, functional facilities, and improved walkability in employment-intensive urban areas. The results provide certain guiding significance for alleviating the mismatch of time and space in green space enjoyment and for improving the spatiotemporal inclusiveness of green spaces in urban central business districts.

How do pedestrians distribute their visual attention when walking through a parking garage? An eye-tracking study

We examined what pedestrians look at when walking through a parking garage. Thirty-six participants walked a short route in a parking garage while their eye movements and head rotations were recorded with a Tobii Pro Glasses 2 eye-tracker. The participants' fixations were then classified into 14 areas of interest. The results showed that pedestrians often looked at the back (20.0%), side (7.5%), and front (4.2%) of parked cars, and at approaching cars (8.8%). Much attention was also paid to the ground (20.1%). The wheels of cars (6.8%) and the driver in approaching cars (3.2%) received attention as well. In conclusion, this study showed that eye movements are largely functional in the sense that they appear to assist in safe navigation through the parking garage. Pedestrians look at a variety of sides and features of the car, suggesting that displays on future automated cars should be omnidirectionally visible. Practitioner summary: This study measured where pedestrians look when walking through a parking garage. It was found that the back, side, and wheels of cars attract considerable attention. This knowledge may be important for the development of automated cars that feature so-called external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs).