Visual Guided Navigation

Abstract

Abstract : The problem of visual space perception is the recovery of the location, shape, size, and orientation of objects in the environment from the pattern of light reaching the eyes. Similarly, the problem of visual navigation is the recovery of an observer's self-motion with respect to the environment from the moving pattern of light reaching the eyes and the complex of extra-retinal signals including eye-muscle, neck-muscle, and vestibular signals. During the last two and a half years, we continued our theoretical and experimental investigations of human visual navigation and space perception. Our accomplishments include several publications in referred scientific journals, the completion of a rotating chair apparatus for use in studying visual-vestibular interactions, and the development of numerous software tools for the control of psychophysical experimentation including graphic display, control of external devices, and analysis of experimental data. These accomplishments are relevant to several aspects of the military aviation mission including 1) how the use of synthetic visual displays (virtual reality in the advanced cockpit, night-vision goggles, etc.) will affect perceived self-motion and spatial orientation, 2) how extra-retinal signals that occur in high-performance flying will affect perceived self-motion and orientation and 3) what visual properties synthetic displays will have to have to prevent or minimize spatial disorientation illusions.