The Effects of the M17A2 Protective Mask on Human Pursuit Tracking Performance.
Abstract
Wearing of the M17A2 protective mask alters a soldier's ability to detect, acquire and track moving targets. In this study we attempted to describe the decrements in pursuit tracking performance produced by the M17A2 protective mask. Sixteen male volunteers used an optical tracking device to track targets at a constant angular velocity of 5 mrad/sec under bright and dim ambient light conditions in the BLASER pursuit tracking simulator. Volunteers were assigned randomly to either a control or an experimental group. Only the experimental group wore the M17A2 protective mask during testing. The Analysis of Variance of the Percent Time-on-Target (%TOT), Root Mean Square (RMS) and Maximum Absolute Error (MAE) revealed statistically significant performance decrements for those wearing the protective mask. These effects were seen in both the vertical and horizontal axes. During the bright light trials tracking performance improved as the volunteers adjusted to the presence of the mask. Such evidence emphasizes the need for training while using the mask. Wearing the mask produced the greatest effects under low ambient light condition (e.g., %TOT < 57%). Our results suggest that soldiers using direct-view optics (e.g., TOW, GLLD) could experience difficulties arising from the decrease in field of view (FOV) and the inability to scan in the normal horizontal manner while wearing the M17A2 protective mask. Keywords: Target detection, Target acquisition, Moving targets, Visual targets.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA190292
Entities
People
- Charles A. Barba
- David A. Stamper
- David M. Penetar
- Jerome W. Molchany
Organizations
- Letterman Army Hospital