The House of the Future was presented for a total of three solid hours with groups of ten people cycling in about six times an hour. This gave me ample opportunity to collect responses to the exhibit. While I did not conduct a formal study, I informally solicited responses in addition to the ones that were volunteered to me. In general, people were very polite and filed into and out of the CAVE quickly. They followed directions and, therefore, I felt confident giving them the 3D glasses that tracked the wearer so that I could involve the visitors in the exhibit. I refer to the visitors as the users of the exhibit.
Among the various attractions, squashing a `bug' proved the most popular activity while touring the house. This bug had a predefined path that it followed through each room of the house. Users gleaned much satisfaction from being able to walk up to a bug, step on it, and have it squash beneath their feet. An accompanying squish noise further enhanced their pleasure. The evidence of the bug squishing - namely the smashed colors left behind - remained on the floor in the location of the squishing until the next bug met it's demise. While this is a trivial case of interactive activity, this persistent evidence of the bug gave users the feel that they `left their mark' in the house. Actually leaving an artifact of their presence in a room regardless of how long it remained is a very satisfying activity in any environment. In order to control the flow of the tour and to keep the bugs from overtaking the main activity, the infestation was limited to one bug at a time.
Another popular aspect of the house tour was the interactive shower. Users enjoyed the idea of a voice activated shower. Once turned on, they further enjoyed jumping into and out of the water flow. Many users would walk into the shower and actually pretend like they were showering, making remarks about the lack of soap, the location of towels, etc. Users also enjoyed the idea of video screens embedded within a wall, but that were also portable to any part of the house including the ceiling.
One group of users consisted of architects. I was a bit apprehensive about this group because I thought they would view the house design with a critical eye and miss the whimsy of the tour. This group surprised me with their enthusiastic response to the tour and the entire house. They thoroughly enjoyed touring both the inside and the outside of the house, walking through the rooms and interacting with the furnishings. Furthermore, once in the bedroom, one of the architects, who was also the tracked individual, attempted to crawl under the bed to the enjoyment of his colleagues.
Overall, the user response was positive and enthusiastic. They became involved in the metaphor of the house tour and were interested in viewing each room. They asked questions about the various features and commented on the ones that they would like to have installed in their own home. The visitors also enjoyed much of the humor of the house and the quirky running commentary that the home comfort system provided. I was satisfied that they were attentive to the home comfort system voice in addition to all the other attractions the house provided.
Observing the user interaction with the environment demonstrated to me that in the short time they were in the house, the user could still develop some type of relationship with the environment. The fact that they picked up on their favorite aspects of the house and were attentive to them showed that they could progress beyond the virtual reality technology itself and examine the uniqueness of the environment presented to them. Afterall, the exhibit was not about virtual reality, but rather about the examination and exercise of an environment meant to provide the inhabitant with specific services ideally tailored to their needs. This implies that there is, in virtual reality, the possibility of acquiring useful user input through simulations. The examples of well documented and researched virtual reality are still scarce, however. It will be interesting to see if virtual reality does fulfill it's promise to the scientific community to provide new methods of research or if it falls into the entertainment industry in the way that much of it has already.