The US Air Force Research Laboratory is developing color HMD technology to enhance information conveyance to the pilot. One essential component of this technology is an understanding of the best ways to use color. We describe two opposing color-coding strategies and explain how we applied them to the weapons functionality of a pre-existing, monochrome HMD symbol set. We then report fighter pilots' evaluations of the color codes after the pilots tested them while flying a realistic air-to-air scenario in a simulator. Overall, the pilots preferred the color-coded symbology to the monochrome baseline. Furthermore, and perhaps surprisingly, a 'red means shoot' color-coding strategy was preferred overwhelmingly to a 'green means go' strategy. These results, their interpretation, and our future research directions are discussed.

Date Published: 11 August 1998
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 3362, Helmet- and Head-Mounted Displays III, (11 August 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.317432

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3362:
Helmet- and Head-Mounted Displays III
Ronald J. Lewandowski; Loran A. Haworth; Henry J. Girolamo, Editor(s)