Visual Search Performance in HMDs with Partial Overlapped Binocular Fields-of-View

摘要

A helmet-mounted display (HMD) with a partial binocular overlap field-of-view (FOV) is slated for use with the Army's new RAH-66 Comanche helicopter in order to increase the available size of the FOV. The current investigation examined how three FOV configurations affect performance in a visual search task under demanding viewing conditions. Performance was measured by response time and accuracy in the full overlap FOV, the convergent partial overlap FOV, and the divergent partial overlap FOV. Twenty-one aviators were required to visually scan for and identify a number out of eight alphanumerics randomly positioned in a randomly cluttered FOV as quickly as possible while minimizing errors. In general, the fastest response times (RTs) were to targets in the full overlap FOV compared to the partial overlap FOVs. The RT performance data were not disconfirmed by the accuracy data, that is, there was no speed- accuracy trade-off in the data, meaning, accuracy was not deferentially substituted for response speed across conditions. There were no significant differences in accuracy for the three FOV conditions.