Design guidelines for the simulation of the usage context “station” in VR environment

Abstract

Virtual environments are best suited for developing new information concepts for public transport. The paper deals with this possibility and examines immersion and presence for the two end devices CAVE and HMD. As an example a virtual system with dynamic and interactive elements is examined. The paper shows the relevant guidelines that a virtual environment has to fulfill in order to perform a meaningful test. For a realistic virtual environment, the travel chain and the individual elements in stations were examined in advance. Thus, a virtual model was created which contained real elements such as sound, avatars, information points, trains and ticket machines. The test persons were thus able to fully immerse themselves in the station.