Background and foreground interaction: Influence of complementary colors on the search task

Labels are indispensable visual (communication) elements that completely deliver the geospatial message of maps. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of complementary colors between the map's background and text on the readability of cartographic texts and thus on the efficiency of the map user's search task. This is compared with the use of the “traditional” black labels on the corresponding colored backgrounds. Furthermore, a number of user characteristics, such as gender and expertise, are taken into account as well. The users' eye movements were registered to study their attentive behavior during the visual search task. In addition to the complement of the color's hue, the analyses were based on the difference in luminance, which could also affect the labels' readability. The difference between the black and colored label design was significantly different versus the eye‐tracking metrics. A correlation was found between the color difference and reaction time measurement and between the luminance difference and fixation duration. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 437–445, 2015     

Text legibility for projected Augmented Reality on industrial workbenches

Augmented Reality is a promising technology for the product lifecycle development, but it is still not established in industrial facilities. The most relevant issues to be addressed relate to the ergonomics: avoid the discomfort of Head-Worn Displays, allow the operators to have free hands and improve data visualization. In this work we study the possibility to use projection-based Augmented Reality (projected AR), as optimal solution for technical visualization on industrial workbenches. In particular, text legibility in projected AR is difficult to optimize since it is affected by many parameters: environment conditions, text style, material and shape of the target surface. This problem is poorly addressed in literature and in the specific industrial field. We analyze the legibility of a set of colors prescribed by international standards for the industrial environments, on six widely used industrial workbenches surfaces. We compared the performance of 14 subjects using projected AR, with that using a traditional LCD monitor. We collected about 2500 measurements (times and errors) through the use of a test application, followed by qualitative interviews. The results showed that, as regards legibility, projected AR can be used in place of traditional monitors in most of the cases. Another not trivial finding is that the influence on legibility of surface irregularities (e.g., grooves, prominences) is more important than that of surface texturization. A possible limitation for the use of projected AR is given by the blue color, whose performance turned out to be lower than that of other colors with every workbench surface.     

老年人食品包装的易用性设计

老年人食品包装设计未能充分考虑老年人生理和心理上的特殊需求,一般存在难以识别及难以开启等问题。设计师在进行老年人食品的包装设计时,可采用去繁求简、整合设计的方式,使用简单的图形化语言,将零散的信息重组,强化重要信息,设计出老年人易于读取的开口方式,提高包装的易读性;运用提示性设计,在商品包装上有效传达食用方法等说明性文字信息,提升包装的易识别性;对包装结构进行整合,将复杂的结构简单化,强化重要且重复使用的功能结构,突出包装的易拿取性。同时,可在包装中运用符合老年人心理需求的中国传统图案、代表健康长寿的吉祥图案,以及老年人喜爱的＂百子图＂图案等,使老年人形成一种健康、积极乐观的心理暗示。     

电影中“创造性空间”与“空间连贯性”概念之比较——以里维特的《北桥》和侯麦的《飞行员的妻子》为例

本文通过对里维特的《北桥》和侯麦的《飞行员的妻子》进行比较.讨论了电影中的“创造性空间”和“空间连续性”的概念,以及它们在描述巴黎的“可读性”时的不同效果。侯麦使用了城市中的日常标志物以在影片中重建真实城市的空间地理,并引导观众们的方向认知。而里维特则选择了一些对于游客来说更加有名的标志性建筑.作为“巴黎之海”的观察点。侯麦的城市策略是对日常性的精确刻画，而里维特的角色们则在超现实的心理地图中进行“都市漫游”,并凸现出“消失中的巴黎”。但是由于里维特遵守由叙事所限定的时间连贯性,影片叙事空间中的“高度统一场”得到了尊重,在观众的知觉中影片的情节依然是连续可读的。     

Is interlace refresh a practical method for reducing VDU flicker?

Tests were conducted to discover whether interlacing of successive lines in VDUs (with ‘fast’ phosphors and bright backgrounds) is a visually acceptable technique for reducing the bandwidth of the display's electronic circuitry. The experiments show that interlacing, compared to non-interlaced refresh, introduces several new types of interference in the visual channel of the observer, which can only be removed by using image repetition frequencies ? 50/100 Hz (full/half rame), and by increasing the line density to a value beyond that which is needed for the generation of 9 × 7 alphanumeric characters. The net reduction in bandwidths is thus only by a factor of 0.83 if all types of visual interference are to be removed at observing distances of greater than 0.3 m for line densities less than 3.4 lines per millimetre.     

Influence of simultaneous variation in size of type, width of line, and leading for newspaper type.

A speed of reading technique was employed with 820 readers to determine the effect on legibility of simultaneous variation of type size, line width, and leading for Excelsior newspaper type. 9 typographical variations were compared with text set in 8-point type in a 12-pica line width with 2-point leading. Results revealed that 7-, 8-, and 9-point type in a 12-pica line width with 2-point leading were read most rapidly and equally fast. But text in relatively long lines, very short lines, and small type size, or combinations of these with little or no leading were read significantly slower than the standard. Judgments for relative legibility and pleasingness revealed a reader preference for 8- or 9-point type with 2-point leading in a line width of 12 picas (12 or 18 picas for 9-point type). Text in relatively long or short lines, small type size, and no leading received low ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation and optimization by colorimetry of polarizers for liquid crystal display

This paper describes the development of useful polarizers for LCD application, their optimization and evaluation based on colorimetry. Figures of merit are suggested for the characterization of LCDs and polarizers using this technique. More than 50 polarizers were used in the experiment, which also evaluated their use for both twisted nematic black-and-white LCDs and guest-host colour LCDs. Their optical properties and the associated display legibility were shown to be best exprssed colorimetrically.     

Optimization by colour representation of a twisted nematic display system for car application

Several means are proposed for improving the representation of coloured information by twisted nematic LCDs in the transflective negative contrast mode, which are well suited for automotive application. In order to optimize the optical appearance of such display systems we analyse the spectral and spatial properties if the residual off-transmission and its implications for the perceived contrast. An appropriate adjusting of cell parameters, proper choice of accessories and the use of dichroic dyes allow spectral matching of cell and light source and thus improve contrast.     

Handwriting style classification

This paper describes an independent handwriting style classifier that has been designed to select the best recognizer for a given style of writing. For this purpose a definition of handwriting legibility has been defined and a method implemented that can predict this legibility. The technique consists of two phases. In the feature-extraction phase, a set of 36 features is extracted from the image contour. In the classification phase, two nonparametric classification techniques are applied to the extracted features in order to compare their effectiveness in classifying words into legible, illegible, and middle classes. In the first method, a multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) is used to transform the space of extracted features (36 dimensions) into an optimal discriminant space for a nearest mean based classifier. In the second method, a probabilistic neural network (PNN) based on the Bayes strategy and nonparametric estimation of probability density function is used. The experimental results show that the PNN method gives superior classification results when compared with the MDA method. For the legible, illegible, and middle handwriting the method provides 86.5% (legible/illegible), 65.5% (legible/middle), and 90.5% (middle/illegible) correct classification for two classes. For the three-class legibility classification the rate of correct classification is 67.33% using a PNN classifier.Received: 6 September 2002, Accepted: 19 September 2002, Published online: 6 June 2003     

宋体与新罗马体笔划设计易读性比较研究

目的从易读角度对中英文印刷字体笔划构造设计进行比较分析,旨在找出两者异同,阐明宋体字笔划构造优势,探讨中文字体设计借鉴英文字体设计的可能性。方法采用实例比较研究法,分别从两种字体的笔划数量和笔划密集度对易读性的影响,笔划末角形状对笔划长短的影响,笔划粗细及笔划末角装饰对视线影响,笔划末端线放射比较等6个方面展开研究,整理归纳其各自易读性优势,尝试探寻其借鉴的可能性。结论文字线的数量、密度、笔划末端形状和装饰,以及笔划的放射等均对两种文字产生了不同的影响,要充分发挥宋体字笔划设计易读优势,合理借鉴新罗马易读优势,根据版面易读需求合理对文字笔划进行设计,为改善中文字体设计提出更多切实可行的理论参考。