IE 5790 – HUMAN

FACTOR ENGINEERING

Lecturer Set 4 – Visual Sensory System

University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar

VISUAL SENSORY
SYSTEM
Chapter 4
SKILLS

AFTER THIS LECTURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

 Brief Review:: Areas of research in field of Human Factor
Engineering
 Understand the relationship between causal independent
variables
 Human vision is one of the most complex visual systems among animals. The
main sensory organ of the visual system is the eye, which takes in the
physical stimuli of light rays and transduces them into electrical and chemical
signals that can be interpreted by the brain to construct physical images.

Hue is one of the main properties of a color and can be defined as "the degree to
which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are
described as red, green, blue, and yellow".
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT

Light is an electromagnetic wave

Amplitude
Amplitude perceived as brightness
Wavelength (nm) perceived as hue

Wavelength
PROPERTIES OF LIGHT
 Light is an electromagnetic wave. It can be easily
represented on the visual spectrum. It has a
wavelength and amplitude.
 Its wavelength is represented along the x axis and
expressed in nanometers.
 The wavelength determines the hue (color
identification).
 The amplitude is represented along the y axis and
it determent the brightness.
 What is saturated and unsaturated light?
 When wavelengths are not diluted by gray, like pure red, they are said
to be saturated. Diluted wavelengths, like pink, are of course unsaturated
PHYSICAL MEASURES OF LIGHT

Luminous Flux
 source of energy like sun or head light of car (units is candela)

IL luminance
The amount of energy that strikes surface of object (unit is foot candle or lux)

Luminance
 The amount of energy that is replected back from the surface of the object
(foot lambert)

Reflectance

The ratio of luminance/illuminance

Brightness

perceived intensity (how much we can see i.e visibility)

ANATOMY OF THE EYE
ACCOMMODATION
 Cornea – The outer covering of the eye where light is first focused

 Lens – does the fine tuning Start from here next time

 Retina –The area in back of eye containing photoreceptors

 Accommodation – changing the shape of the lens to focus images on the

retina
 Myopia – nearsightedness caused by inability to flatten the lens enough to
focus image on retina (may be due to elongated eye). Distant objects
cannot be brought into focus

 Presbyopia – farsightedness that occurs naturally with age as the lens

becomes less flexible. Lens can not accommodate to very near objects
COLOR VISION

 The CIE color model is a color space

model created by the International
Commission on Illumination known as the
Commission Internationale de l’Elcairage
(CIE). It is also known as the CIE XYZ
color space or the CIE 1931 XYZ color
space
 CIE Color Space
 2-D representation of 3-D color space
 Hues more saturated (pure) at rim, diluted
toward the center (white)
 X axis – long wavelengths (red)
 Y axis – medium wavelengths (green)
 All colors represented by x,y coordinates
 Center is white – combo of all wavelengths
 COLOR VISION

Types of color deficiences and color blindness (click to see what color blind see)
Protanomaly (1% of males) – low sensitivity to red (low λs)L--Cone
Deuteranomaly (6% of males) – low sensitivity to green (med λs shifted to red)M-
Cone
Protanopia (<1% of males) – see in shades of blue and yellow – neutral pt as grey
Deuteranopia (<1% of males) – see in shades of blue and yellow – neutral pt as
grey
Tritanomaly/Tritanopia (very rare in both sexes) – blue-yellow
deficiency/blindness(S-Cone)
Monochromacy (extremely rare) – inability to distinguish any colors
 PHOTORECEPTORS
There are two types of photoreceptors in the human
retina, rods and cones.
Rods:
Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels .They are not
sensitive to color vision. They are sensitive to dim light. (night
vision)

Cones:
Cones are active at higher light levels. Cones are capable of
color vision. Cones are sensitive to color(day light vision). The
central fovea has lots of cones.
COLOR VISION TRICHROMATIC THEORY
According to this theory, there are three receptors in
the retina that are responsible for the perception
‫ مممسممممجھ‬ of color.
One receptor is sensitive to the color GREEN, another
to the color BLUE, and a third to the color RED. The
combinations of these three colors produces all of the
colors that we are capable of perceiving.
PURKINJE SHIFT
 Purkinje shift – This is also called
Purkinje Effect. As we switch from cone
to rod vision (day to night), shorter
wavelengths appear brighter (green
objects appear brighter, red objects
appear darker).

 (Human Factors application: How does the

Purkinje shift (Purkinje effect ) play a role in
the design of fire trucks?)
 https://isle.hanover.edu/Ch03Eye/Ch03PurkinjieS
im_evt.html
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOxMimXl9zk
COLOR VISION
OPPONENT PROCESS THEORY

Hering’s Opponent Process Theory: Eye contains

antagonistic (opposite) responses to 3 pairs of colors
- It compares the after image process
COLOR VISION
OPPONENT PROCESS THEORY

The opponent-process theory states that the cone

photoreceptors are linked together to form three
opposing colour pairs: blue/yellow, red/green, and
black/white.
According to this, cells can only detect the
presence of one color at a time because the
two colors oppose one another.
For example , You do not see greenish-red
because the opponent cells can only detect
one of these colors at a time.
DARK ADAPTATION -Takes about 30 minutes to dark adapt,
but just a few minutes to light adapt

-Dark adaptation is essentially the

reverse of light adaptation. It occurs
when going from a light area to a dark
area. Initially blackness is seen because
our cones functioning in low intensity
light. Once in the dark, the sensitivity of
the retina increases over time (this can
take approximately one hour).
DARK ADAPTATION
• (Human Factors application:
• why are red lights used in cockpits and darkrooms? OR
• Answer: because rods are insensitive to longer wavelengths (red) the
eyes “think” they are in the dark already allowing user to dark adapt
more quickly)
• How long does it take the human eye to adjust to darkness?)
 Rods are more sensitive to light and so take longer to fully
adapt to the change in light. Rods, whose photopigments
regenerate more slowly, do not reach their maximum
sensitivity for about half an hour. Cones take approximately 9–
10 minutes to adapt to the dark.
 VISUAL ACUITY Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity
of vision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and
neural factors, i.e.,
1. the sharpness of the retinal focus within the eye
2. the health and functioning of the retina
3. the sensitivity of the interpretative faculty of the
brain.
20/20 Vision – a person can see from 20 feet
what a person with “normal” vision can see
from 20 feet

20/40 Vision – a person can see from 20 feet

what a person with “normal” vision can see
from 40 feet

Snellen Eye Chart

CONTRAST AND VISIBILITY

Variable Effect Example

Contrast Visibility Black on gray

Illumination Contrast Reading map in
Sensitivity poor light
Polarity Black on white Viewgraphs
Spatial Frequency Optimum CS at Font sizes
3 C/D https://www.sciencedirect.c
om/science/article/pii/S0042
698902000457

Visual Accommodation CS (Contrast Night driving

Sensitivity)
Motion CS Traffic signs
SPATIAL FREQUENCY

0.5%

Contrast

100 %
Low High
Spatial Frequency
READING TEXT

Contrast, Spatial Frequency (Font Size)

and Font Style must be considered in the
display of text for optimum legibility
(Human Factors Application: While the green
background provides good contrast and the
font size is highly legible, the font style does
not allow for visual separation of letters.)

Megaflicks Video
TOP-DOWN VS. BOTTOM-UP
PROCESSING
Experience
• knowledge
• expectations
• desires
Top-Down

Perception

Bottom-Up

Stimulus World
• Five senses
MONOCULAR DEPTH CUES
Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the distance of an object. Linear perspective is a
monocular cue that allows us to perceive the depth and distance of an object. A monocular
cue is any depth cue that can be processed by using one eye alone. This is in contrast
to binocular cues that require the use of both eyes to perceive distance and depth.

Linear Perspective
- converging parallel lines
Relative Size
- if 2 objects are known to be similar size,
the smaller one appears further away
Ames room illusion fools us into thinking that the distance is the
same to both people in the photo, therefore their size must be
different.
MONOCULAR DEPTH CUES

Interposition Light & Shading

- Nearer objects obscure the - 3-D objects cast shadows
view of further objects and shade on opposite side
of illumination source, and
reflections on same side
MONOCULAR DEPTH CUES

Textual Gradients Aerial Perspective

- Texture appears more fine - Objects in the distance
with increasing distance appear hazy or bluish
MONOCULAR DEPTH CUES

Cool Examples of
Monocular Depth Cues

Motion Parallax
- As perceiver moves, objects in foreground
appear to move by faster than objects in
background
BINOCULAR CUES
Binocular cues are the information taken in by our 2 eyes and then
processed by our brain in order for us to perceive depth or distance.

Convergence
- Eyes rotate inward as
object gets closer

Retinal Disparity
- Slightly different image to each
eye, brain combines them
 RETINAL DISPARITY (3D T-REX)

Click for more anaglyphs:

 Advantages of Binocular Vision from internet

•You effectively have a spare eye. If one is lost or damaged

you still have one left.
•It gives a wider field of view.
•We can use retinal disparity to distinguish distance.
•We can also use binocular convergence to distinguish
distance.
•We can partially see an object behind an obstacle.
VISUAL SEARCH

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Serial Search Parallel Search

Search time: T = (N x I) / 2
Pop-out Effect
I = inspection time per object
- conspicuities
N = total number of objects
SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY (SDT)
HTTP://WWW.OXFORDBIBLIOGRAPHIES.COM/VIEW/DOCUMENT/OBO-9780199828340/OBO-9780199828340-
0209.XML

Signal detection theory (SDT) was originally developed to

describe the performance of radars, which must detect
signals against a background of noise. As radars become
more sensitive (capable of detecting weaker and weaker
signals), they are increasingly able to correctly detect
when signals are present; these events are called hits,
and their probability of occurrence is the hit rate\
However, radars may also mistake noise for
signals; these events are false alarms, and the
corresponding probability is the false alarm rate.
SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY

Actual State
Signal Present Signal Absent
(Strike) (Ball)
Hit False Alarm
Yes P(H) P(FA)
(Swing) Base Hit! Swinging Strike
Operator
Response Miss Correct
No 1 – P(H) Rejection
(Hold up) Called Strike 1 – P(FA)
Ball
SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve

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Se iti v =
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H Se ty
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SDT Homework
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0 P(FA) 1.0
Homework Answers
SDT APPLICATION

 Think of some situation to which you can apply signal detection

theory.
1. What do each of the outcomes (hit, miss, false alarm, correct
rejection) mean in the context you are thinking about? What are their
consequences?
2. How great do you think d' (the sensitivity) is in this situation (is there a
lot or little overlap between the 'signal' and 'noise' curves)? How might
we change d' in this situation?
3. What might cause people to adopt a certain b (the criterion) in this
situation? Is a risky or a conservative criterion preferable? How might
we change b in this situation?
4. What might be a consequence of examining the situation using signal
detection theory rather than simply monitoring with one standard
assessment measure (hits, false alarms...)?
APPLICATIONS OF SDT
 Medical diagnosis
 Police identification line-ups
 Monocular and binocular depth perception
 Items on a radar screen on collision paths
 Discriminating smells [gas leak detection]
 Parapsychology -- extra sensory perception
 Drug testing in personnel selection
 Baseball -- swing at a pitch or not
 Military detection (camouflaged objects)
 Effectiveness of radar & night vision devices
 Driving -- safe to go through a gap/overtake
 Emergency / fire detection -- dispatch of ambulances
END OF TOPIC