Title |
Predicting Visibility of Aircraft
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, May 2009
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0005594 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Andrew Watson, Cesar V. Ramirez, Ellen Salud |
Abstract |
Visual detection of aircraft by human observers is an important element of aviation safety. To assess and ensure safety, it would be useful to be able to be able to predict the visibility, to a human observer, of an aircraft of specified size, shape, distance, and coloration. Examples include assuring safe separation among aircraft and between aircraft and unmanned vehicles, design of airport control towers, and efforts to enhance or suppress the visibility of military and rescue vehicles. We have recently developed a simple metric of pattern visibility, the Spatial Standard Observer (SSO). In this report we examine whether the SSO can predict visibility of simulated aircraft images. We constructed a set of aircraft images from three-dimensional computer graphic models, and measured the luminance contrast threshold for each image from three human observers. The data were well predicted by the SSO. Finally, we show how to use the SSO to predict visibility range for aircraft of arbitrary size, shape, distance, and coloration. |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Ukraine | 1 | 3% |
Australia | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 32 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 7 | 21% |
Researcher | 5 | 15% |
Student > Master | 5 | 15% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 2 | 6% |
Student > Bachelor | 2 | 6% |
Other | 4 | 12% |
Unknown | 9 | 26% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Engineering | 9 | 26% |
Psychology | 5 | 15% |
Physics and Astronomy | 3 | 9% |
Computer Science | 2 | 6% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 2 | 6% |
Other | 4 | 12% |
Unknown | 9 | 26% |