A Virtual Peer for Investigating Social Influences on Children's Bicycling

S Babu; T Grechkin; B Chihak; C Ziemer; J Kearney; J Cremer; J Plumert

doi:10.1109/VR.2009.4811004

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Conference proceeding

A Virtual Peer for Investigating Social Influences on Children's Bicycling

S Babu, T Grechkin, B Chihak, C Ziemer, J Kearney, J Cremer and J Plumert

2009 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference, pp.91-98

03/2009

DOI: 10.1109/VR.2009.4811004

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Abstract

The goal of our work is to develop a programmatically controlled peer to ride with a human subject for the purpose of studying how social interactions influence riding behavior. The peer is controlled through a combination of reactive controllers that determine the gross motion of the virtual bicycle, action-based controllers that animate the virtual bicyclist and generate verbal behaviors, and a keyboard interface that allows an experimenter to initiate the virtual bicyclist's actions during the course of an experiment. The virtual bicyclist's repertoire of behaviors includes road following, riding alongside the human rider, stopping at intersections, and crossing intersections through specified gaps. The virtual cyclist engages the human subject through gaze, gesture, and verbal interactions. We describe the structure of the behavior code and report the results of a pilot study examining how 10- and 12-year-old children interact with a peer cyclist. Results of the pilot study showed that the presence of the peer had a significant influence on the size of the gaps taken as well as time left to spare between the participant and the trailing car in the crossed gap.

3D Human-Computer Interaction

Animation

Applied Perception

Bicycles

Decision making

H.5 Information Interfaces and Presentation

Humans

Injuries

K.3 Computers and Education

Motion control

Peer to peer computing

Psychology

Road accidents

Traffic control

Virtual Humans

Details

Title: Subtitle: A Virtual Peer for Investigating Social Influences on Children's Bicycling
Creators: S Babu - Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
T Grechkin - Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
B Chihak - Dept. of Psychol., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
C Ziemer - Dept. of Psychol., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
J Kearney - Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
J Cremer - Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
J Plumert - Dept. of Psychol., Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Resource Type: Conference proceeding
Publication Details: 2009 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference, pp.91-98
DOI: 10.1109/VR.2009.4811004
ISSN: 1087-8270
eISSN: 2375-5326
Publisher: IEEE
Language: English
Date published: 03/2009
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Nursing; Injury Prevention Research Center; Computer Science
Record Identifier: 9984213393002771

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