Does Task-Specific Experience Improve Altitude Estimation in Virtual Environments?. Hartle, B., Deas, L. M., Allison, R. S., Irving, E. L., Glaholt, M., & Wilcox, L. M. In Centre for Vision Research International Conference on Vision in the Real World. 2017.
abstract   bibtex   
The potential advantages of stereopsis for aircrew has long been an interest in aviation, but there is no clear consensus on its impact. One potential reason for this is the redundancy of monocular and binocular sources of depth information in natural environments. In a previous study, we assessed the impact of stereopsis on distance judgements during simulated helicopter low hover with the observer looking out of a helicopter, past the skid, to the ground plane. Specifically, we assessed relative distance estimation under stereoscopic (S3D) and monocular viewing conditions. We varied the availability of monocular depth cues by rendering the ground with four types of terrain. On each trial observers (n=14) were asked to estimate the distance between the skid and the ground plane relative to the distance from themselves to the skid. Our results showed that performance was more accurate in S3D than monocular conditions. Furthermore, under monocular viewing conditions, observers scaled their estimates with distance, but tended to strongly underestimate relative to predictions. These results support the hypothesis that stereopsis facilitates judgement of relative distance in low hover. However, the above results could reflect the fact that our observers were inexperienced. Task-specific training that aircrew receive could diminish potential benefits of stereopsis. In the current study, we replicated the previous experiment using trained aircrew (n=32). Aircrew demonstrated higher accuracy in the monocular conditions relative to inexperienced observers, though the benefit of binocular viewing was still observed. Interestingly, when monocular information was unreliable judgements made by aircrew were less precise than conditions with reliable monocular cues. Overall, the presence of stereopsis improved accuracy of relative distance judgements in low hover for inexperienced observers and trained aircrew. Despite higher accuracy in monocular conditions for aircrew, their estimates were affected by unreliable monocular information while inexperienced observers were not. These results highlight the impact of task-specific training on the accuracy of depth judgements in rotary wing flight operations.
@incollection{Hartle:2017ab,
	abstract = {The potential advantages of stereopsis for aircrew has long been an interest in aviation, but there is no clear consensus on its impact. One potential reason for this is the redundancy of monocular and binocular sources of depth information in natural environments. In a previous study, we assessed the impact of stereopsis on distance judgements during simulated helicopter low hover with the observer looking out of a helicopter, past the skid, to the ground plane. Specifically, we assessed relative distance estimation under stereoscopic (S3D) and monocular viewing conditions. We varied the availability of monocular depth cues by rendering the ground with four types of terrain. On each trial observers (n=14) were asked to estimate the distance between the skid and the ground plane relative to the distance from themselves to the skid. Our results showed that performance was more accurate in S3D than monocular conditions. Furthermore, under monocular viewing conditions, observers scaled their estimates with distance, but tended to strongly underestimate relative to predictions. These results support the hypothesis that stereopsis facilitates judgement of relative distance in low hover.
However, the above results could reflect the fact that our observers were inexperienced. Task-specific training that aircrew receive could diminish potential benefits of stereopsis. In the current study, we replicated the previous experiment using trained aircrew (n=32). Aircrew demonstrated higher accuracy in the monocular conditions relative to inexperienced observers, though the benefit of binocular viewing was still observed. Interestingly, when monocular information was unreliable judgements made by aircrew were less precise than conditions with reliable monocular cues. Overall, the presence of stereopsis improved accuracy of relative distance judgements in low hover for inexperienced observers and trained aircrew. Despite higher accuracy in monocular conditions for aircrew, their estimates were affected by unreliable monocular information while inexperienced observers were not. These results highlight the impact of task-specific training on the accuracy of depth judgements in rotary wing flight operations. 
},
	annote = {York June 2017},
	author = {Hartle, B. and Deas, L. M. and Allison, R. S. and Irving, E. L. and Glaholt, M. and Wilcox, L. M.},
	booktitle = {Centre for Vision Research International Conference on Vision in the Real World},
	date-added = {2017-09-03 18:22:12 +0000},
	date-modified = {2017-09-03 18:22:39 +0000},
	keywords = {Stereopsis},
	title = {Does Task-Specific Experience Improve Altitude Estimation in Virtual Environments?},
	year = {2017}}

Downloads: 0