A comparative study of target acquisition performance of teleoperated sensors and direct human vision

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation shows that by improving teleoperator sensor design, similar performance to direct human visioncan be achieved on a target acquisition task. Current technology teleoperated sensors give inferior targetacquisition performance compared to direct human vision, as demonstrated by a set of target acquisitionexperiments with a simulated television sighting system versus direct human vision on the same natural targetand background scenes. The main reasons for the former's poor performance were ascribed to tunnel vision andthe dynamic presentation on the television display that reduced the visual acuity of the subjects. It was furthershown that the human visual system could be adequately stimulated over a 60° field of view with only two videochannels - a low angular resolution, wide-field for peripheral vision and a high angular resolution, narrow-fieldfor foveal vision. By displaying the wide-field and narrow-field information into separate eyes the visual cortexcould integrate the two pictures. Experimental proof was provided with a simple cardboard tester, followed by anelectro-optical tester. It was then postulated that an eye-slaved foveal inset display system would give similartarget acquisition performance to unaided human vision. An eye-slaved foveal inset display system was built andtested on the same target scene used for the direct vision and the television sight experiments. Waldman's targetacquisition theory was extended to include saccadic movements using Stark's scanpath theory to model fixationpoints in the given scene. The mathematical model was calibrated with the experimental data. The validatedtheory was used to demonstrate that target acquisition performance close to direct human vision could beachieved if high definition displays were used. The applications where the foveal inset display system providedbenefits were also defined. Further work is recommended on higher resolution, colour, and stereoscopic designs.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University