Title
Conspicuity of moving soldiers
Author
Beintema, J.A.
Toet, A.
de Vries, S.J.
Publication year
2011
Abstract
The construction and validation of soldier combat models requires data on the conspicuity of camouflaged targets in the field, and human targets in particular. So far, this data is lacking. Also, it si currently unknown to what degree luminance contrast and motion contribute to target conspicuity. These data are needed to enable the validation and further development of human visual search performance modules in soldier combat models like SCOPE or IWARS. In this study we measured the conspicuity of a person wearing a Dutch army camouflage uniform, while he was either standing still, walking or running along a forest in the background, both for viewing with the naked eye (NE) and for viewing dynamic thermal scene recordings (IR). We varied the viewing distance (80m and 230 m), the camouflage pattern (woodland and desert), the type of background (pine-tree and deciduous forest), and season (summer and winter), The IR (thermal) conspicuity of the person was much larger than his NE (visual) conspicuity. In both cases the effects of movement were large and saturated as a function of retinal target speed. For NE, we find large effects of shading that can not explained by local luminance contrast variations. Also for NE, conspicuity was reduced in winter, probably as a result of an increase in scene clutter. The results suggest that conspicuity is not only a function of retinal target motion and global luminance contrast, but also depends on the amount of clutter in the scene. © 2011 SPIE.
Subject
Conspicuity
Contrast
Models
Motion
Search
Human
PCS - Perceptual and Cognitive Systems
BSS - Behavioural and Societal Sciences
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884241
TNO identifier
431859
ISBN
9780819485885
ISSN
0277-786X
Source
Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XXII, 26 April 2011 through 28 April 2011, Orlando, FL, 8014 (8014)
Series
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Bibliographical note
Sponsors: The Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Document type
conference paper