Scientists in the UK have created a giant hi-tech pavement that will help them study various pedestrian congestion problems.

The work at Pamela (the Pedestrian Accessibility & Movement Environment Laboratory) is described as:

“If you think of places such as Oxford Circus around Christmas time, pedestrian capacity is a big issue,” said Professor Nick Tyler of University College London.

“How much of that is just due to having too many people in the space, and how much could be improved by thinking about how that space is organised?”

The pavement is computer controlled and can be made uneven or sloped at the push of a button, you can also alter the lighting and noise conditions, creating scenarios ranging from street-light-illuminated midnight scenes to a dawn landscape accompanied by birdsong. The testing pedestrians are monitored for eye movement, stress, pulse etc. so that researchers can see how the environment effects them.

A full report is available on the BBC.