Abstract
Physical safety signs on construction sites often fail to capture workers’ attention. In contrast, proactive warning systems designed to provide immediate feedback on dynamic risks show promise in improving workers’ safety measures. Despite established evidence for the feasibility of such technologies, there is a gap in research about their actual impact on safety behavior. This study explores the effects of these proactive systems on improving safety performance for construction workers within an immersive virtual environment (IVE). To this end, a novel virtual warning system was introduced, providing real-time alerts to workers when approaching hazardous areas. The study utilized a comparative experimental setup to evaluate the proactive system against standard safety signs. A group of 56 participants engaged in IVE trials, contributing behavioral data for analysis. Findings reveal the proactive warning system significantly outperforms traditional signage in delivering hazard warnings without hindering on the participants’ overall task performance. The data strongly support the further development and practical implementation of proactive warning systems in construction safety management. © 2024 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 106774 |
| Journal | Safety Science |
| Volume | 186 |
| Online published | 12 Feb 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2025 |
Funding
The Shenzhen Science and Technology Program JCYJ20220818101019039, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province PJ#2021A1515011660, and the City University of Hong Kong Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant PJ#7020075 jointly supported this work. The conclusions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.
Research Keywords
- Construction safety
- Immersive virtual reality
- Proactive warning systems
- Safety behavior
- Safety performance
- Safety sign