THE EFFECT OF VISUAL NOISE ON THE RECOGNITION OF ROAD TRAFFIC SIGNAL LIGHTS

EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF VARIOUS CONFIGURATIONS OF BACKGROUND NOISE ARE REPORTED. THERE APPEAR TO BE TWO EFFECTS, ONE LUMINANCE-DEPENDENT WHICH CAN BE DESCRIBED IN TERMS OF AN EQUIVALENT BACKGROUND LUMINANCE, AND THE OTHER A 'CONFUSION' EFFECT. THE RESULTS ARE REPORTED WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF A THEORETICAL MODEL FOR NOISE WHICH MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR SPECIFYING COMPLEX BACKGROUNDS BUT WHICH IS NOT TESTED BY THE EXPERIMENTS REPORTED. IF A SIGNAL HAS AN INTENSITY ADEQUATE FOR DAYLIGHT USE (I.E. 200 CANDELAS OR MORE) THEN IT IS CONCLUDED THAT FOR THE ALERTED OBSERVER THE ARRAY OF IRRELEVANT LIGHTS OF THE KIND COMMONLY FOUND AS A BACKGROUND TO SIGNAL LIGHTS IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AT NIGHT IS UNLIKELY TO HAVE A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON ITS CONSPICUITY. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  • http://arrbknowledge.com
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00050164
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 4, No 1, PP 35-49
• Authors:
  • Brown, B Scott
  • Cole, B L
• Publication Date: 1969-9

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Australian Road Research
  • Publisher: ARRB
  • ISSN: 0005-0164

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Brightness; Mathematical models; Night; Psychological conflict; Signal lights; Theory; Traffic noise; Traffic signals; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Models
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00225650
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 16 1970 12:00AM