The effects of field of view size on the control of roll motion

Human operator characteristics were measured during a fixed-base visual tracking task where the field of view (FOV) varied from 10 degrees to 120 degrees . Using the critical tracking (CT) task, five subjects were tested at 10 degrees , 20 degrees , 40 degrees , 80 degrees , and 120 degrees FOV. The measured effective time delay declined exponentially as the FOV increased. The corresponding root-mean-squared (RMS) error followed a U-shaped curve with the majority of the RMS reduction at 40 degrees FOV. A second experiment, in which two subjects were tested at 10 degrees , 40 degrees , and 120 degrees FOV, used a time-invariant plant to allow the measurement of human describing-function parameters. The crossover frequency, increased at least 5% and the RMS error dropped by at least 20% at a FOV of 40 degrees or 120 degrees compared to 10 degrees . The results from these two experiments show that a FOV as small as 40 degrees can produce performance improvements of the same magnitude as a FOV as large as 120 degrees . In the final experiment, where only the central 10 degrees of the scene rotated, performance was unexpectedly best at 10 degrees and poorest at 40 degrees and 80 degrees .<
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