1. Wei Yan Yehuda Kalay University of California, Berkeley
SIMULATING HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN BUILT ENVIRONMENTS
Wei Yan
Yehuda Kalay
University of California, Berkeley

2. Human behavior in built environments
Sproul Plaza UC Berkeley

3. Behavior simulation
Simulated Sproul Plaza, Berkeley

4. Predicting behavior
Behavior patterns in New York City plazas, William Whyte, 1980

5. Predicting behavior Whyte’s question: Our question:
why some places work well, other do not?
Our question:
how can we predict which places will work well, which ones will not?
Behavior patterns in New York City plazas, William Whyte, 1980

6. Methodology Develop virtual users with behavioral traits.
Add usability traits to the environment, as locational input to the VUsers.
Assure that the simulated behavior corresponds to actual behavior.

7. Video Tracking Statistics
Methodology
Behavior
Simulation
Video Tracking Statistics
Verification
Environment
Modeling
Usability
Geometry
User
Modeling
Behavior
Geometry
Perception

8. Environment modeling
Measurements in Sproul Plaza

9. Environment modeling
2D DXF

10. Environment modeling Usability Model – Discrete Space Model
Step cell
Cell Properties:
Sittable?
In the sun or in the shade?
Occupied by a user?
………
Ground cell
Fountain side cell
Fountain water cell
Bench cell
Usability Model – Discrete Space Model

11. Environment modeling
3D VRML

12. User modeling
Human form.
Human movement.
Human traits:
shortest path

13. User modeling Human form. Human movement. Human traits:
modified shortest path

14. User modeling – social space
Personal-space bubble (Deasy, 1985)
Personal space
Social space (closer)
Social space (farther)
Public distance
Proxemics (Hall, 1966)

15. User modeling - movement
Artificial Life.
Boids (Reynolds, 1999)

16. User modeling – goals & preferences
Poisson distribution for arrival rates
Sproul Plaza UC Berkeley Summer 2003

17. User modeling – goals & preferences
William Whyte, 1980

18. User modeling – video tracking system

19. User modeling – video tracking system
Target region highlighted: people at the fountain
Background subtraction
Foreground image
Intensity thresholding

20. User modeling – statistics
Numbers of people entering the plaza on different days
Numbers of people sitting in different places on different days

21. User modeling – paths

22. Results - simulation

23. Results – design alternatives

24. Conclusions

25. Conclusions Computers in design processes:
representation
synthesis
evaluation
Evaluation of physical factors:
structures
energy
etc.
Evaluation of human factors:
behavior learning
behavior modeling/simulation