A Study on the Visibility of Different Floor Levels : Experiments from a Stumbling Point of View

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to examine the visibility of different floor levels from a stumbling point of view. The test subjects were the elderly and the young, and we compared the difference between the two. We investigated eye movement while they were scanning the different floor levels. The results were as follows : 1) The height of different floor levels and illuminance had an influence on the visibility of different floor levels. Especially, the elderly were easily influenced by them. 2) The eye movements in scanning the different floor levels did not relate to the visibility of them, but were related to the personality of the test subjects. Eye movement patterns of the elderly differed from that of the young. The elderly were scanning mainly the lower part. The eye fixation time of the elderly was longer than that of the young. From the results, it was clarified that there were the difference betlveen the elderly and the young. We could show it by the degree of influence. For example, the influence by the change of environmental condition.