Measuring Observers' Visual Acuity Through Night Vision Goggles

Abstract

Use of night vision goggles (NVGs) for military applications has grown steadily over the past 30 years. Each successive NVG model represents some kind of improvement in terms of size, weight, ruggedness, gain, noise, spectral sensitivity, field-of-view or resolution. The primary focus of this paper is the determination of NVG resolution. Many methods have been devised to measure the resolving power of NVGs and each method has with it an associated variance or accuracy of measurement. This variance is most likely caused by several sources including observer visual capability (since most methods involve visual observations and judgement to assess NVG resolution). The main purpose of this paper is to present the different methods that have been used to assess NVG resolution and to determine to what extent observer visual capability limits the accuracy of NVG resolution measurement. This study uses a methodology that measures an observer's psychometric function when viewing through NVGs (percent correct detection as a function of spatial separation) to determine their visual acuity using probit analysis.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA430646

Entities

People

  • Alan Pinkus
  • H. L. Task

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Color Temperature
  • Electro-Optics
  • Factor Analysis
  • Frequency
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Illumination
  • Images
  • Light Sources
  • Measurement
  • Military Applications
  • Night Vision
  • Observers
  • Optical Phenomena
  • Optical Properties
  • Optics
  • Psychology
  • Statistical Analysis

Readers

  • Circadian Sleep-Wake Regulation and Chronobiology
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.