Evaluation of alternative waveforms for animated mimic displays

Animated mimic displays can be used to present system information regarding physical form, function, and causality. However, a potential limitation in current designs has been identified: the presence of ambiguous apparent mo tion. TWO theoretical explanations of ambiguous apparent I-notion ale discu ssed (Fourier and correspondence hypotheses). Two alternative designs (stai r-step and approximate sinusoid luminance waveforms) were evaluated. The ve locity matches obtained in Experiment 1 indicate that the sinusoidal wavefo rm produced significantly better performance for both accuracy and latency than the stair-step waveform. The velocity estimates obtained in Experiment 2 indicate that ambiguous apparent motion was not visible with the sinusoi dal waveform, but was with the stair-step waveform. One of the two hypothes es (correspondence) provides a reasonable fit with the obtained velocity es timates. A fundamental goal in the design of animated mimic displays is to provide unambiguous mappings between perceived velocity and actual flow rat es. Critical factors in design (e.g., waveform, chromatic/luminance contras t, spatial/temporal frequency) are discussed. Actual or potential applicati ons of this research include the design of mole effective animated mimic di splays.