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Image Segmentation and Emotional Analysis of Virtual and Augmented Reality Urban Scenes

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Beyond Digital Representation

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Abstract

Implementing Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for participatory processes can support citizens’ understanding of urban design outcomes favoring multi-stakeholder collaboration. Moreover, the interaction of final users with virtual and augmented environments, representing actual conditions or design schemes, can lead to identifying how specific urban features (e.g., typologies of greenery, urban materials, buildings) can affect the experience of places of today and tomorrow, i.e., before proceeding to construction. In this perspective, we combine two analytical methods to investigate the relationship between the physical environment and its subjective perception. Indeed, image segmentation allows for analyzing the urban scenes' environmental features and the exp-EIA © (experiential—Environmental Impact Assessment) method investigating the geolocated people’s reactions to the environment. This paper introduces this overall approach and methodology and presents an application in Milan. The case study is in the Porta Romana-Vettabbia area, a southern district of the city of Milan (Italy), where the Fondazione Prada by OMA (2018) was recently built, and the Symbiosis district by Covivio R.E. and ACPV (Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel) is currently under construction, and the design project VITAE by Covivio R.E., Carlo Ratti Associati, and partners will be located. The results of such type of study can inform the urban design project process, starting from the analysis of the current conditions to the definition of urban design briefs and during the design development and decision-making phase, by supporting the identification of the spatialized experiential effects of the urban composition of natural and artificial elements.

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Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union EIT Digital research and innovation program Horizon 2020 “AR4CUP | Augmented Reality for Collaborative Urban Planning” (2019 and 2020). The responsibility for this publication lies solely with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

The research project presented in this paper was developed with the psychologists Marco Boffi and Nicola Rainisio (Università degli Studi di Milano).

Patent and Copyrights: Through an architectural\psychological integrated framework, the interaction with a real or simulated environment triggers an experience that can be reliably assessed using the exp-EIA ©—Experiential Environmental Impact Assessment method (Copyright BOIP N. 123453—06.05.2020 and N. 130516—25.02.2021; Patent for Invention application N. 102021000017168—30/06/2021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana Fausto Curti, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Gabriele Stancato & Barbara Ester Adele Piga

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  1. Gabriele Stancato
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  2. Barbara Ester Adele Piga
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Contributions

The overall effort on the article and the writing is equally distributed among the authors, whose contribution according to CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is described as follows. Conceptualization, B.P.; methodology, B.P., G.S.; formal analysis, G.S.; investigation, B.P., G.S.; data curation, G.S.; writing—original draft preparation, G.S.; writing—review and editing, B.P.; visualization, G.S.; supervision, B.P.; funding acquisition, B.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gabriele Stancato .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. DICEA, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy

    Andrea Giordano

  2. DSDRA, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy

    Michele Russo

  3. DAD, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

    Roberta Spallone

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Stancato, G., Piga, B.E.A. (2024). Image Segmentation and Emotional Analysis of Virtual and Augmented Reality Urban Scenes. In: Giordano, A., Russo, M., Spallone, R. (eds) Beyond Digital Representation. Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36155-5_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36155-5_28

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