FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
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AVIATION MEDICINE REPORTS

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-99/8

Title and Subtitle: Optimizing Blink Parameters for Highlighting an Air Traffic Control Situation Display

Report Date: March 1999

Authors: Milburn, N.J., and Mertens, H.W.

Abstract: Research suggests blinking targets are more alerting than steady targets; however, several factors can interact with blinking to either improve or degrade its attention-getting value. Those factors include target size, color, brightness contrast, frequency of blink, and the time the blink is at maximum brightness relative to the time it is off or dim during the blink cycle. No guidelines were found for determining the optimal attention- getting blink amplitude (the percentage of decrease in target brightness from a standard) and the interaction of blink amplitude with the other blink characteristics mentioned above. Thirty-six participants were asked to locate and select blinking blocks of text on a simulated air traffic control display to examine the interaction of blink frequencies, amplitudes, and durations with size of text. Our results support the use of amplitudes 75% or greater combined with frequencies from 2 to 4 Hertz and text size 0.15 inch or greater for optimum highlighting value in visual search tasks.

Key Words: Attention-Getting, Text Size, Target, Flashing CRT Display, Frequency, Air Traffic Control, Amplitude, Blink

No. of Pages: 26