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Biomedical subjects

P K Hughes

Publications and source records attributed to P K Hughes.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Ocular vergence measurement in projected and collimated simulator displays.

The purpose of this study was to investigate electrooculography (EOG) as a measurement of ocular vergence in both collimated and projected simulator environments. The task required participants to shift their gaze between a central fixation point and a target appearing at one of three eccentricities. EOG was effective in recording ocular vergence. The EOG results were similar between collimated and projected displays, except for differences in vergence changes during lateral movement of the eyes, and ocular excursions downward elicited a greater EOG response than the reverse upward movement. The computer-based technique of recording vergence was found to produce measurable traces from a majority of participants. The technique has potential for further development as a tool for measuring ocular vergence in virtual environments where methods that require the wearing of head-mounted apparatus to track ocular structures (e.g., the pupil), which cannot be worn at the same time as a flight or flight-simulator helmet, are unsuitable.

Computer Simulation↗

Eye movement behaviour viewing colour-coded and monochrome avionic displays.

This paper reports on two experiments in which subjects' eye movement behaviour was monitored while they searched for target information in colour coded and monochrome horizontal situation indicator (HSI) displays. The first experiment required subjects to locate and report alphanumeric information associated with the active waypoint on the displayed flightpath. Initial fixations in the display were more accurately directed to the target information when it was redundantly colour coded compared with when it was coded by shape and relative positional codes. Fewer fixations and a shorter time were required to locate the colour coded target and verbally report the relevant information. The time advantage of colour coded displays compared with monochrome displays was greatest for visually cluttered displays. In the second study there was no advantage of a coloured display when the task was to count all the displayed waypoint symbols on the flight path. The lack of any benefit for colour coding was a result of waypoint symbols having strong positional predictability due to their relationship to the displayed flightpath in both the colour and monochrome displays. The implication from these results is that colour coded information confers an advantage over a spatial code for targets at unknown spatial location but less benefit when target location can be predicted by other visual cues.

Aerospace Medicine↗

Reduced contrast sensitivity when viewing through an aircraft windscreen.

The Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF) of an experienced observer was measured under normal viewing conditions, when looking through an aircraft windscreen and when looking through the windscreen in the presence of a glare source. We found that contrast sensitivity was significantly reduced for frequencies above about 6 cycles/degree viewed through the windscreen and that the addition of a glare source further reduced contrast sensitivity for all spatial frequencies greater than 1 cycle/degree. These results demonstrate that the CSF is a sensitive metric of degraded visual performance when viewing through optical transparencies.

Aerospace Medicine↗