Visual motion on screens changes pedestrian walking paths in public
Visual-Motion-Induced Modulation of Pedestrian Trajectories Using Spatially Distributed Multi-Display Signage in Public Spaces
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
Big screens showing moving stripes can trick people’s brains into feeling like they are moving sideways, even when they are not. The authors tested this idea in a lab and at a national museum and found that when these patterns cover a large part of people’s field of view, they tend to walk slightly in the direction the stripes move. This shows that such visual illusions on multiple displays can subtly guide where crowds walk without saying a word. It could help designers manage foot traffic in busy places.
What this means in practice
- •For urban planners: Use spatially coordinated moving patterns on city screens to influence pedestrian flow in crowded areas without explicit signage.
- •For museum exhibit designers: Design multi-display installations that guide visitor trajectories subtly to enhance experience and manage crowd movement indoors.
Authors
Yuri Mikawa, Taiki Fukiage, Yuki Kubota, Takumi Yokosaka, Maki Ogawa, Kazushi Maruya
Abstract
Multi-display signage (MDS), now ubiquitous in urban environments, has the potential to influence human behavior and experience in public spaces. However, despite its unique capability to present spatially distributed dynamic visual stimuli, its current use is mainly limited to advertising. In this study, we propose a perception-based approach for laterally modulating pedestrian trajectories as a nonverbal means of guiding pedestrians in public spaces. The approach is motivated by vection, the illusion of self-motion, and uses laterally moving monochrome stripes, a standard stimulus in vection research, presented across spatially distributed displays to elicit postural responses that may bias pedestrian trajectories. We evaluated the approach through a controlled laboratory experiment and a real-world field deployment involving actual pedestrian flows in a national museum. The laboratory experiment examined whether the MDS setup induced trajectory shifts in the direction predicted by prior research on the behavioral effects of vection. The field deployment investigated whether comparable effects would emerge in aggregate pedestrian behavior during unconstrained movement under conditions closer to those of urban public spaces. In the laboratory, full-screen motion significantly biased walking trajectories in the direction of visual motion, whereas partial-stripe motion produced no significant directional effect. In the field deployment, opposing full-screen motion conditions produced direction-consistent differences in aggregate pedestrian positions. The field results, observed despite the substantial variability in real-world pedestrian flows, extend the controlled laboratory findings and provide ecologically valid evidence supporting practical MDS-based pedestrian modulation in public settings. The results further suggest that sufficient visual-motion coverage may be important.