The model did a good job of illustrating which effects would and would not work well. The shaking room is definitely a plausible & realistic idea. From the two videos, the shaking (second video) looks much more realistic than the vibration. The shadows and the sound do a good job of simulating an attack. A couple of other ideas for this that might be interesting: 1. flickering light bulbs 2. steam escaping from pipes or water dripping 3. a computer generated voice in the sound track saying something like "warning - impact - hull breached..." or something like that. The cramped space adds to the effect I think, so I am curious how well the effect will work in a larger room. On the question of how much shaking and the related ADA compliance, Matt Duplessie remarked that its possible to restrain wheelchairs if required, so this may not be very important.

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The special effects for a scene like this look like they could be very challenging, so it was a very good idea to test them out. It was good that you tested them with multiple users as well as yourself. From the website it looks like you found issues with both the porthole and the vibrator. Both of these problems are probably solvable. For the porthole it might be a good idea to look at some of the things that other teams are doing to simulate being underwater. Some teams are projecting images onto a screen or using water tanks with bubbles. These could work for you too. You could easily incorporate the shadow into either of these options. For the impact, it might be a good idea to look at things other than vibrators. They usually produce vibrations that are too high frequency. If you build a stronger room, you might think about creating an actual impact, hitting something against the floor or wall of the room. If the room sits loosely on a foundation or has the freedom to move slightly, an impact could jar the room effectively. This could be accomplished using a spring loaded actuator or some other device. Overall, well done on the simulations.

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(The video didnt work directly from your page at first. I had to look up the source file, but I was able to watch it). Even though I saw the background during the user test, it still felt convincing like an emergency was happening. You should test with multiple users inside to see what type of behavior would occur amongst the group in such a tight space. For the back porthole, you could use a projector like another team used, for the underwater visuals. The idea of shadows and sun is interesting. Making shapes, perhaps in the shape of a monster, would be something to experiment with to see if they would be realistic. If the power isn't enough to jar the guests, then maybe additional visual (dents in the wall) and/or auditory will startle them. I think that believable, fear-inducing effects, like the room tilting back and forth with perhaps the air bladders, would be more important than necessary a big spike of force. With some of the effects understood, you should think about the actual aesthetic environment in the room to make it more fear and stress inducing. For user testing, you could walk people blindfolded into the environment and make sure they dont see the sketch model beforehand. This way, they expect less of what they are about to experience.

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