Thanks to being grounded in Germany by the ash cloud, I got a chance to visit Christoph Hoelscher and his group at the Centre of Cognitive Science in Freiburg last week. I had met him some time ago when he was paying a visit to Kenny's lab at Northumbria, and I was really pleased that he was able to make some time for me given the short notice. He has been working a lot on indoor navigation (e.g. [1]), and I did get to see a few experiments they had implemented to test various aspects relating to indoor navigation (e.g. the impact of specific architectural features, different types of landmarks, strategies when navigating different types of environments).
They are using different types of VR environments to conduct their studies, which is closely related to the immersive video/panoramic photograph approach we've been using/investigating here.
[1] Hölscher, C., Meilinger, T., Vrachliotis, G., Brösamle, M., & Knauff, M. (2006). Up the Down Staircase: Wayfinding Strategies and Multi-Level Buildings. Journal of Environmental Psychology 26(4), 284-299.
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Reflections on ash clouds and transport networks
Earlier this month, I had a flight booked to Germany from Newcastle. As it so happened, the flight was on the day the infamous ash cloud started to cover Europe. I was woken at 5 a.m. in morning when my phone beeped with a text message informing me that my flight had been cancelled. As their web site still said that my connection flight from London was 'confirmed' and 'on time' (couldn't get through to their call centre), I hopped onto the next train to London.
Luckily, it had free (!) Wifi so I could chat with my wife who was following the news on TV and radio, and also keep an eye on the BA web site. Somewhere around Peterborough, my connection flight was cancelled, and I started to investigate alternative routes to my destination, which turned out to be quite tricky. There doesn't seem to be working pan-European booking/look-up service for trains - so I had to piece information together from several web sites. Once I got to London, I was at least able to buy a ticket that took me to Brussels and then on to Cologne (where I had to buy another ticket). In the end, I actually got to my destination about 30 min later than I had would have gotten there if I had taken the plane.
So, from this experience it appears to me that a) it's possible to be almost as quick using train than using a plane if you travel within Europe, b) it's not outrageously expensive (I paid less than what I would have paid for a plane ticket bought on the day of travel), and c) if there was a unified booking/lock-up service for trains (similar to those available for planes), I think more people might consider this option. After all, taking the train is so much more relaxed (bigger seats, not having to rush through ever increasing numbers of security checks), being able to walk about at any time, etc.).
Luckily, it had free (!) Wifi so I could chat with my wife who was following the news on TV and radio, and also keep an eye on the BA web site. Somewhere around Peterborough, my connection flight was cancelled, and I started to investigate alternative routes to my destination, which turned out to be quite tricky. There doesn't seem to be working pan-European booking/look-up service for trains - so I had to piece information together from several web sites. Once I got to London, I was at least able to buy a ticket that took me to Brussels and then on to Cologne (where I had to buy another ticket). In the end, I actually got to my destination about 30 min later than I had would have gotten there if I had taken the plane.
So, from this experience it appears to me that a) it's possible to be almost as quick using train than using a plane if you travel within Europe, b) it's not outrageously expensive (I paid less than what I would have paid for a plane ticket bought on the day of travel), and c) if there was a unified booking/lock-up service for trains (similar to those available for planes), I think more people might consider this option. After all, taking the train is so much more relaxed (bigger seats, not having to rush through ever increasing numbers of security checks), being able to walk about at any time, etc.).
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