Perceptual issues for color helmet-mounted displays: luminance and color contrast requirements

Thomas H. Harding; Clarence E. Rash; Morris R. Lattimore; Jonathan Statz; John S. Martin

doi:10.1117/12.2223035

13 May 2016 Perceptual issues for color helmet-mounted displays: luminance and color contrast requirements

Thomas H. Harding, Clarence E. Rash, Morris R. Lattimore, Jonathan Statz, John S. Martin

Proceedings Volume 9839, Degraded Visual Environments: Enhanced, Synthetic, and External Vision Solutions 2016; 98390E (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2223035
Event: SPIE Defense + Security, 2016, Baltimore, MD, United States

Abstract

Color is one of the latest design characteristics of helmet-mounted displays (HMDs). It’s inclusion in design specifications is based on two suppositions: 1) color provides an additional method of encoding information, and 2) color provides a more realistic, and hence more intuitive, presentation of information, especially pilotage imagery. To some degree, these two perceived advantages have been validated with head-down panel-mounted displays, although not without a few problems associated with visual physiology and perception. These problems become more prevalent when the user population expands beyond military aviators to a general user population, of which a significant portion may have color vision deficiencies. When color is implemented in HMDs, which are eyes-out, see-through displays, visual perception issues become an increased concern. A major confound with HMDs is their inherent see-through (transparent) property. The result is color in the displayed image combines with color from the outside (or in-cockpit) world, possibly producing a false perception of either or both images. While human-factors derived guidelines based on trial and error have been developed, color HMD systems still place more emphasis on colorimetric than perceptual standards. This paper identifies the luminance and color contrast requirements for see-through HMDs. Also included is a discussion of ambient scene metrics and the choice of symbology color.

Citation Download Citation

Thomas H. Harding, Clarence E. Rash, Morris R. Lattimore, Jonathan Statz, and John S. Martin "Perceptual issues for color helmet-mounted displays: luminance and color contrast requirements", Proc. SPIE 9839, Degraded Visual Environments: Enhanced, Synthetic, and External Vision Solutions 2016, 98390E (13 May 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2223035

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