Perception of Combined Visual and Inertial Low-Frequency Yaw Motion

Abstract

Following a previous study in the Simona simulator on perception of coherent visual and inertial cues in a flight simulator, an experiment is performed in the Desdemona simulator to investigate the influence of the frequency of visual and inertial stimuli on the limits of the perceived coherence zone. The coherence zone is defined as the range of inertial motion amplitudes that, though not being a physical match to the visual cues, are still perceived by subjects as coherent. The main hypothesis tested is that the semi-circular canals dynamics influence the internal comparison between the visually and inertially perceived self-velocity. Furthermore, the results between the Simona and Desdemona studies are compared. In general, the effect of amplitude and frequency on the measured coherence zones follow the same trends as in the previous study: the coherence zone width increases with increasing visual cue amplitude and the point of mean coherence decreases with respect to the one-to-one line for the higher amplitudes. The results for the low frequency and low amplitude stimulus might be affected by the inertial sensory threshold, making it difficult to draw definite conclusions about the posed hypothesis. The results between the two simulator studies are different in terms of absolute values, but the trends are the same.