Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL)

PEARL’s vision is to create a better world for a future in which people and the environment can thrive together in a mutually beneficial, safe, equitable and healthy way. We aim to improve the quality of life, health and well-being of all within the context of a more sustainable environment. We see this as a world in which people and the environment come together.

We believe in looking at the issue first, before determining which combination of scientific, artistic, engineering, humanitarian, or philosophical approaches might be needed to understand it.

In discussions with partners, we aim to understand the challenges faced by their users and find ways to test potential solutions in PEARL. We work closely with you to assess the problem and then assemble the necessary team from UCL’s expertise. After that, we involve people from our local community and beyond to test the solutions and validate the approach before sharing outcomes and recommendations.

The team at PEARL conducted research into how individuals who are blind or partially sighted, members of the neurodiverse community, those with learning disabilities, and wheelchair users or individuals living with mobility impairments navigated urban environments including bus stops, pedestrian crossings, pavement configurations and shared pedestrian and cycle lanes.

This was a comprehensive three-part project with focus groups from across the UK, real-time data collection on city streets, and experimentation at PEARL which included building a floating bus stop which is accessed by crossing a cycle lane which was all done by the PEARL team.

The outputs from this will inform future policy and design interventions to create a more inclusive and accessible built environment.

A supermarket was created in PEARL that was designed to help neuro-typical people understand how neurodiverse people experience a supermarket. The aim was to help businesses and the public understand why supermarkets can be disabling sensory environments for autistic people, and how we can make them more enabling.

There were aisles with only one item, the lighting was very bright and therefore it was uncomfortable to see and it was noisy, making it very hard to concentrate. The PEARL team created the physical supermarket space and projected sounds typical to those found in supermarkets.

Supermarket staff were brought to PEARL to help them understand the autistic customer experience and to consider how to redesign supermarkets to cater for a broader population.

PEARL was approached by Tier, Dott and Lime to develop an inclusive sound for e-scooters to safely alert pedestrians of their approach.

The sound has been designed with a broad spectrum of users, including those with sight loss, hearing loss and neurodiversity, from its inception to ensure it is as effective as possible for the population.

The PEARL team undertook field studies to understand the different noises heard on urban roads. From here they developed a long list of potential distinctive sounds and then whittled this down to a shortlist that was tested in PEARL measuring participants' response times, heart rate and brain activity to create one final sound.

This sound is now being tested in the field by the operators, hopefully leading to safer roads for all users.

PEARL was used alongside field studies in four Europe cities to help researchers create a regulatory safety framework for the use of autonomous shuttles in cities.

The aim of this study was to increase public trust in the use of autonomous vehicles. These shuttles are remotely controlled by operators who oversee a number of simultaneous services.

An autonomous shuttle was tested in PEARL alongside pedestrians, electric scooter users and cyclists.

Over 100 people took part in an experiment to explore how people navigate and experience an art gallery set-up. This was the chosen type of location as it allowed a large group of people to be present at the same time to allow researchers to collect data that could improve the design of buildings.

This experiment was designed and run by architects and psychologists, using PEARL’s expertise to build the art gallery and gather data on where people were and how they navigated through the gallery including when given specific tasks to do.

In addition to collecting data on how every participant moved, some people were given additional sensors to wear including devices, such as mobile electroencephalography (EEG) systems to measure brain activity and eye-tracking glasses to monitor where they are looking.

Transport for London (TfL) asked PEARL to test the legibility of information on the front of double-decker buses researching how well different technologies were able to be read.

A double-decker bus was brought into PEARL, and participants were asked to read different display signs in a variety of conditions including low light and fog. People’s ability to read each of the signs in each of the different conditions was recorded the legibility of the displays was compared and a suggestion of which is the best technology was shared.

Transport for London (TfL) approached PEARL to explore how upper deck sunroofs and tinted solar films affected passenger thermal comfort when travelling by bus.

TfL supplied four double-decker busses, each with a different top deck sunroof and film configuration. The PEARL team fitted sensors and collected data on the environment before, during and after taking participants on a bus journey. 

The PEARL team analysed all the data collected, including from participants and used this to advise which was the best sunroof and solar film configuration for passenger thermal comfort.  

We work with academics from a range of disciplines including civil engineers, architects and built environment professionals, brain scientists and roboticists.

Our innovative Researchers are just as curious about other disciplines as they are their own. They are not tied to specific research grants to allow them the flexibility to work on multiple experiments and projects at a time as needed, as well as pursue their research interests.

Our Making and Production team are highly skilled in designing and constructing environments for experiments, including simulating the best sound, lighting and olfactory conditions for different scenarios. They also assist in the design and manufacture of innovative prototypes and provide much-needed support for a range of technological software and hardware.

Our Enabling staff are vital to making all things happen at PEARL. As such, they will form an integral part of the research and experiment teams, so that they have a full understanding of what is needed in a project to support the work involved.

PEARL’s sound is capable of providing multi-speaker layouts within the laboratory for experiments. Sound can be dynamically moved through the space from quiet and subtle to very loud as required.  Reverb can be manipulated within the laboratory which can allow a listener to perceive the space differently to the carefully designed one-second reverb time that naturally exists within the lab.

The Vibe (sound preparation room) has 16 speakers distributed around the control position. The Vibe is used to prove concepts and prepare sounds ready for transfer into the laboratory. The vibe can be used for smaller sound-based experiments and research.

PEARL has a fixed experiment lighting rig consisting of RAYN ROSA lighting fixtures with a custom LED chip set. This enables the replication of a significant range of realistic lighting conditions based on scientific spectral data readings.

We also have:

• Top-of-the-range stage lighting fixtures to supplement the fixed experiment lighting rig.
• Projectors, screens, cameras and video equipment/software with the flexibility to rig throughout the Space.

PEARL has a large amount of truss and chainhoists which can be rigged throughout the Space. Scenic environments are designed and built to suit each experiment. Previous environments have included an East London Park, a Supermarket, a bus stop bypass, an artist’s studio and environments for creative research and development.

We can also create:

• Smoke and haze to simulate mist, fog, and poor visibility.
• Scent systems to provide a range of scents.

PEARL’s camera systems and CODAMOTION 3D motion tracking systems are used for capturing the movement and position of people and objects.

PEARL has a range of wearable instrumentation used to look at people’s responses to their environments, such as:

• fNIRS (mobile): for localised brain activity
• EEG (non-mobile): for brain activity
• EDA: for naturally occurring changes in electrical properties of the skin to indicate stress
• XSENS: IMUs for 3D body motion
• Eye Tracking for measuring eye movements and fixations
• Heart Rate Monitors for measuring heart rate
• Ecoport: for hearing
• Thermal Camera: for body temperatures
• FSCAN: insole sensors for pressure distribution whilst walking and grip sensors for grip
• Eye Test Devices (colour vision, visual acuity): for eye tests