Perception coherence zones in flight simulation

The importance of motion perception knowledge for flight simulation is widely recognized. The development and tuning of motion filters relies on understanding the human motion perception mechanisms and its limitations. Particularly interesting for flight simulation is the study of visual-vestibular coherence zones. Coherence zones refer to combinations of visual and vestibular cues that, although not being a one-to-one match, still provide the pilot with the perception of a congruent motion, indicating a realistic simulation. Coherence zones have been measured before during passive tasks, for pre-determined stimuli. During an active task, however, the type of inertial and visual cues being provided are considerably influenced by the pilot control strategy. For this reason, it is important to understand how the amplitude and frequency content of the stimuli affect the perception of a coherent motion. Three experiments were performed to measure the effect of the visual cue amplitude and stimuli frequency on yaw perception coherence zones. In accordance with previous research, the measured coherence zones were wider for higher amplitudes of the visual motion cue. In addition to that, for higher amplitudes of the visual cue the point of mean coherence was found to be much lower than the one-to-one line. The stimuli frequency was shown to have an effect on the coherence zones. For a higher frequency stimulus the point of mean coherence was significantly lower than for a lower frequency stimulus. These results were explained using a simple model of the semi-circular canals dynamics. Copyright © 2009 by Delft University of Technology.