Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407220106
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DETROIT LENGTH: Medium
Engineers from General Motors Corp. and the Army are applying military research of the human perception of colors and shapes to civilian drivers.
``At this point, we have a couple of years of work to do to translate the tool from a battlefield arena to an automotive arena,'' said Richard Deering, a manager in GM's crash avoidance department.
Early research is focusing on the color and placement of brake lights.
Yellow might be a better color than red and neon might be better still, Army physicist Tom Meitzler said .
``It's got something to do with how cars and their lights blend into the background clutter,'' he said.
``Maybe, at a particular time, the eye isn't picking it up. They see it but they don't really see it.''
The Army's engineering center in Warren, Mich., is building a state-of-the-art ``visual perception lab'' where people will watch traffic simulations and be asked what kind of vehicles are easiest to spot.
An estimated one out of seven crashes occur because drivers didn't see the other vehicle. In 1991, motorists paid $140 billion to repair their crashed cars - and about $150 million of that damage was done to cars where the drivers say they didn't see the other car coming, Meitzler said.
Military technology has come a long way from the World War II days when tank crews would paint their own camouflage once they got on the battlefield, he said.
Sophisticated computer simulations and mathematical formulas - along with psychology and vision research - have created an abundance of military data on what makes objects less visible.
``We can essentially flip the model and have it calculate what makes particular vehicles more conspicuous or simpler to see,'' Meitzler said.
by CNB