REAL-TIME POROSITY Combining a computer game engine with environmental sensors to better understand pedestrian movement in public/private space and in real-time

This paper describes the theoretical context, design, implementation and evaluation of a novel method for understanding pedestrian movement in public/private space. It examines the pedestrian counting and tracking methodologies of Space Syntax and proposes an alternative methodology that links sensors embedded in real-world environments and carried by pedestrians with an environment and avatars in a contemporary computer game. In this way observers are able to closely trail pedestrians without affecting their decision making. Results from a field trial are presented where the sensors and computer gaming technology were tested within a challenging real-world environment.