Real-time perceptual navigation expereiments in existing and virtual architectural space

This paper presents ongoing research on an experiment that concerns the spatial perception and cognition in real and virtual architectural environments and is part of a series of experiments that took place in the same field. The differences in perception and cognition of a real building and its virtual counterpart are studied through the processes of navigation and representation. Intelligent features, such as actors and interactive objects are used to determine their influence in the perception and cognition of virtual architectural space. For these reasons a computer gaming engine is used, which can provide a fully interactive intelligent virtual environment that is used to enhance the above factors. Preliminary results confirm earlier findings from previous similar experiments. It was found that there was a statistically significant tendency of the students towards larger scatter in more luminous virtual space as well as a tendency to visit the lit part of virtual space. Visitors of the photorealistic spaces also seem to have better knowledge of the depth of space in comparison to those navigating in the non photorealistic space