A Virtual-Reality Based Study to Evaluate Efficiency of a Technology-Based Emergency Escape Signs in Complex Smart Buildings

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss about new paradigms for the design of emergency exit signs in complex buildings, mainly considering technology support, and their effectiveness in promoting users’ behavioral compliance with safety information. The effectiveness of a new technology-based exit sign concept for wayfinding in an emergency situation of a fire in a complex building is evaluated through its comparison with conventional exit signs. For this, technology-based signs and conventional ones were inserted in a virtual hotel along a route with 12 two-way decision points. A critical situation with conflicting environmental information was considered in which signs were posted in the opposite location of path the most used by visitors. A control group (i.e., conventional static exit signs) and an experimental group (i.e., technology-based exit signs) were tested using a Virtual Reality (VR)-based methodology. A sample of 58 subjects were randomly assigned to the two test groups. VR software automatically collected participants’ route-choice in the 12 decision points, time they took and distance travelled until reaching the exit. For the control group, in the first decision point, about 69% of participants preferred to follow the direction that was the opposite of the one posted on the emergency egress sign. The influence on environmental variables decreased along the egress route. However, when technology-based emergency exit signs were used, compliance rate with the exit signs reached almost 93% along the entire route, with weak influence of the environmental variables from the first decision point to the end. Time taken and distance travelled until reaching the exit were also lower for the experimental group. These results are of paramount importance for the design of a new generation of safety signs that consider technology to increase behavioral compliance, also allowing to open the debate about reviewing emergency exit signs standards.