In large infrastructures like office blocks, administration buildings, traffic infrastructures, shopping malls or conference centers, people often suffer from orientation problems that are significantly increased in the case of crisis situations. The most relevant issue in this context is the design and placement of guidance signs so that these can actually be perceived in the crisis situation.
The project EVES develops a completely novel generation of evaluation system for the evaluation of safety guidance systems as well as concepts for evacuation and fire protection. EVES investigates the evacuation behaviour of people and groups in critical situations through field trials by means of innovative sensor technologies and human factor analyses. Most advanced wearable sensors with state-of-the-art eye tracking glasses and wearable bio-signal acquisition will be applied in order to deduce the effect of type and placement of guidance system to attention. Moreover correlations in the data will be exploited to conclude about perception particularly in stress situations.
The results of the studies will deliver for the first time quantitative measures to describe the behaviour and the information retrieval in near-to-reality situations. These results serve also as input to a significantly enhanced simulation model for pedestrian evacuation simulation. This makes it possible to test various sign placements and different crisis situations by means of computer simulation and supports the evaluation of placement of guidance components, the analysis of capacity of evacuation routes, the identification of critical areas and the duration of evacuation in major buildings or for large events. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from the real world analysis as well as from the simulations help to improve security concepts and can be verified during trainings. In summary EVES provides a substantial contribution for an increased safety in evacuation situations and forms an important basis for the assessment of safety-critical buildings in the future for security agencies, security providers and security specialists.
Project leader
DI Helmut Schrom-Feiertag, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
Projectp artner
JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
IFR Ing. Richard Feischl
Karl-Franzens Universität Graz, Institut für Psychologie
DI Richard Huber Ges.m.b.H.
CITYPARK GmbH
Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung und Sport
Freiwillige Feuerwehr Gumpoldskirchen
Cooperation partner
Bezirksfeuerwehrkommando Mödling
Abteilung Katastrophenschutz und Feuerwehr d. Stadt Graz
Rotes Kreuz Bezirkskommando Mödling
Contact
DI Helmut Schrom-Feiertag
Mobility Department
Dynamic Transportation Systems
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH Österreichisches Forschungs- und Prüfzentrum Arsenal Ges.m.b.H. Giefinggasse 2 | 1210 Vienna | Austria M +43(0) 664 825 10 03 | F +43(0) 50550-6439 helmut.schrom-feiertag@ait.ac.at| www.ait.ac.at