Peripheral Displays for Spatial Orientation: Final Technical Report

Abstract

Abstract : This report describes the equipment acquired with funds from grant F49620-97-1-0093, awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) through the 1997 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) to Dr. Brian Dyre, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Idaho. Part I describes the equipment acquired, special circumstances regarding the acquisition, changes to the equipment as listed in the original proposal, and justifications thereof. Part II summarizes the research projects, completed and ongoing, for which the equipment was used. As proposed, this program of research consists of basic psychophysical studies of the visual mechanisms underlying spatial orientation (the perception of our location in and movement through space) in the context of high workload and wide fields-of-view. Preliminary studies in this line of research have been conducted along two lines: (a) perception of the speed of self-motion, or ego speed; and (b) perception of the direction of self-motion, or heading. However, because the wide field-of-view display system became operational only recently, the research conducted to date, and summarized in this report, addressed issues requiring only a small field-of-view. The laboratory is expected to be fully functional by July 1998.