Victoria University
of Wellington
VAST 2008 Challenge
Mini Challenge 4: Evacuation Traces
Authors and Affiliations:
Jeremy Shipman, Victoria University of Wellington, shipmajere@student.vuw.ac.nz
[PRIMARY Contact]
Craig Anslow, Victoria University of Wellington, Craig.Anslow@mcs.vuw.ac.nz
Stuart Marshall, Victoria University of Wellington, Stuart.Marshall@mcs.vuw.ac.nz
[Faculty advisor]
James Noble, Victoria University of Wellington, kjx@mcs.vuw.ac.nz [Faculty
advisor]
Student team: YES
Tool(s):
We created the EvacTrac tool which maps the given
building and person tracking information into an animated X3D visualisation. A
Java program takes the building and people trace files, and then converts them
into an X3D format, for viewing onto an X3D viewer application. The viewer
automatically allows the user to pan, rotate and zoom around the visualisation
in 3D.
People are represented as tall, green cylinders,
and walls are represented with blue blocks on top of a base floor.
The animated visualisation can be played forwards
and backwards at different speeds. It can be paused at any stage. It can also
be scrolled through using a slider control.
The visualisation also allows individual people to
be selected, so that they are highlighted with a red marker above them, and the
path they follow shows as a red line.
The tool was developed at the Victoria University
of Wellington during the VAST08 challenge period. The developer of the tool was
Jeremy Shipman.
Two Page Summary: YES
ANSWERS:
Traces-1 Where was the device set off?
Grid cell number of where the device went off:
67x24 (assuming 0x0 is located at the upper left
corner of the building)
Short Answer:
To find the location the device was set off
we first scrolled to the end of the animation using the slider on the animation
controls. We then looked for people who had not evacuated, and weren’t moving.
We could tell they weren’t moving by replaying the last part of the animation.
This determined the general area the device was set off in, as shown in Figure
1.
Figure 1: Finding the casualties.
We then scrolled through animation to find the
exact point the device went off. We clicked on each person who was in the
‘general area’ at the start of the animation to highlight them and show their
path lines. We can see in Figure 2 that the path lines appear to move out from
some origin, which we have assumed is the location the device was set off.
Figure 2: Finding origin of outward path lines.
Playing the part of the animation where the device is set off also helps determine its location because the people closest to the device do not all move at the same time, therefore we concluded that the device was closer to the person who was moved first.
Traces-2 Identify
potential suspects and/or witnesses to the event.
Note:
Potential suspects and/or witnesses are people who were near the area just
prior to the explosion and exhibit suspicious behaviour
List of RFID tag numbers :
1; 18; 21; 24; 30; 50; 76; 80;
Short Answer:
We
again used the highlighting, path lines and animation to see how each person in
the group of rooms surrounding the location the device was set off has moved
around. The people shown in Figure 3 may be within hearing distance of any
sounds or conversation related to the device, or may be the culprit(s)
themselves.
Person
21 exhibits particularly unusual behaviour, as his path lines are much
straighter than the other paths. This person also comes close to the location
the device was set off, and leaves the room again before it goes off.
Figure 3: Locations of suspects/witnesses just prior to the device going off.
Traces-3 Identify any suspects and/or witnesses who managed to escape the building.
List of RFID tag
numbers :
1; 21; 24; 30; 80
Short Answer:
Witnesses and/or suspects who managed to escape the building were identified by reducing the set of people who were suspects and/or witnesses to those who were out of the building at the end of the animation. These people shown in Figure 4 were in the group of rooms where the device was set off prior to detonation, suggesting that they may have been involved.
Figure 4: Escaped witnesses and/or suspects.
Traces-4 Identify any casualties.
List of RFID tag
numbers:
18; 19; 36; 39; 47; 50; 56; 60; 65; 69; 76; 78
Short Answer:
Casualties were identified by people who are not moving for long periods after the device was set off. We could make this distinction because everyone else appeared to be moving, even when they had evacuated the building.
Traces-5 Describe the evacuation
Detailed Answer:
Our EvacTrac visualisation tool enables us
visualise the given tracking information in a virtual 3D environment.
The evacuation scenario occurs in the single-story
Department of Health Building,
At the start of the animation we see that most
people are showing little movement, likely seated in their offices. In the
middle of the animation, everyone suddenly starts moving. At the end of the
animation, everyone has evacuated down the hallways towards the nearest exits.
This excludes a group of people on the east side of the building who appear to
be casualties. Figure 5 shows the beginning, middle and end of the animation in
that order.
Figure 5: Start middle, and end of the evacuation scenario.
To find the location the device was set of we
first scrolled to the end of the animation using the slider on the animation
controls. We then looked for people who had not evacuated, and weren’t moving.
We could tell they weren’t moving by replaying the last part of the animation.
This determined the general area the device was set off in, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Finding the casualties by viewing the end of the animation.
We then scrolled through animation to find the
exact point the device went of. We clicked on each person who was in the
‘general area’ at the start of the animation to highlight them and show their
path lines. We can see in Figure 7 that the path lines appear to move out from
some origin, which we have assumed is the location the device was set off.
Figure 7: The origin of outward path lines is likely to be the device location.
Playing the part of the animation where the
device is set off also helps determine its location because the people closest
to the device do not all move at the same time, therefore we concluded that the
device was closer to the person who was moved first. Another reason to back up
this location is that the people on the other side of the wall managed to
escape, but the people in the same room became casualties.
We
again used the highlighting, path lines and animation to see how each person in
the group of rooms surrounding the location the device was set off has moved
around. The people shown in Figure 8 may be within hearing distance of any
sounds or conversation related to the device, or may be the culprit(s)
themselves.
Person
21 exhibits particularly unusual behaviour, as his path lines are much
straighter than the other paths. This person also comes close to the location
the device was set off, and leaves the room again before it goes off.
Figure 8: Locations of suspects/witnesses just prior to the device going off.
Witnesses and/or suspects who managed to escape the building were identified by reducing the set of people who were suspects and/or witnesses to those who were out of the building at the end of the animation. This can be seen clearly in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Escaped witnesses and/or suspects.