Driver performance-based assessment of thermal display degradation effects

The Driver's Vision Enhancer (DVE) is a thermal sensor and display combination currently being procured for use in U.S. Army combat and tactical wheeled vehicles. During the DVE production process, a given number of sensor or display pixels may either vary from the desired luminance values (nonuniform) or be inactive (nonresponsive). The amount and distribution of pixel luminance nonuniformity (NU) and nonresponsivity (NR) allowable in production DVEs is a significant cost factor. No driver performance-based criteria exist for determining the maximum amount of allowable NU and NR. For safety reasons, these characteristics are specified conservatively. This paper describes an experiment to assess the effects of different levels of display NU and NR on Army drivers' ability to identify scene features and obstacles using a simulated DVE display and videotaped driving scenarios. Baseline, NU, and NR display conditions were simulated using real-time image processing techniques and a computer graphics workstation. The results indicate that there is a small, but statistically insignificant decrease in identification performance with the NU conditions tested. The pattern of the performance-based results is consistent with drivers' subjective assessments of display adequacy. The implications of the results for specifying NU and NR criteria for the DVE display are discussed.