Metrics and Tools for Geometry-Based Analysis of Urban Scenes from a Human Perception Perspective

The morphology of a city, the distribution of services and attractions, the presence of vegetation, or the openness of public spaces are all elements that shape how citizens perceive the urban environment they live in. Understanding which features most strongly influence the impression people have of a place is an essential step toward designing effective strategies for urban improvement. In this work, we propose useful tools to analyse, and possibly quantify, the impact that environmental characteristics, such as surrounding colours, amount of light and spatial distribution of urban elements, can have on human perception. Specifically, we consider the geometry of the human field of view to delimit the visible portion of an urban area from a given position, and we introduce new metrics and algorithms for the analysis of the scene. Furthermore, we model the way visual information is captured by our eyes and processed by our brain, relying on basic principles of optics and common techniques in colour engineering. The project is still ongoing, but early results highlight its potential to obtain deeper insights into the citizens’ perception of urban environments.