Final environments

The final model of the elevator (see color plate 1 and movie) used in the experiment was housed in a 49 story hotel. The elevator itself has a guard rail located at waist level. The controls for the elevator were located on the guard rail, a green up arrow, a green down arrow, and a red stop square. The user could see a virtual right hand that he could control to push the buttons on the elevator.

Color plate 1:
Looking down from a elevator

The final model of the balconies environment (see color plate 2) that was used had four balconies at different heights attached to the building: ground level, second floor (6 meters), tenth floor (30 meters) and twentieth floor (60 meters). Again the same mock-up was used as with the elevator so that the user could feel the balcony. No user interaction was necessary.

Color plate 2:
Looking down at the city from the second balcony

The third model used was that of bridges across a canyon with a river at the bottom. The bridges varied not only in appearance but also in height and steadiness. The user could at all times see the next or previous bridges. The lowest bridge (7 meters high) and the second bridge (50 meters high) appeared stable (see color plate 3). The third bridge (80 meters high), dubbed the Indiana Jones bridge by one of the subjects, was a rope bridge with widely spaced wooden slats (see color plate 4).

Color plate 3:
Looking at the first and second bridge

Color plate 4:
Looking down at the third bridge


Designing environment (2) The acrophobia experiments TOC
Rob Kooper
kooper@cc.gatech.edu

Last modified: Wed Aug 9 12:25:44 GMT 1995