Effect of Removing Acceleration Cues on Sensing Vehicular Velocity

Abstract

This paper compares the effect of varying the sensory input (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile and vestibular cues) on the appreciation of traveled velocity. A movie technique was developed to remove the effects of acceleration and present controlled frontal and peripheral visual cues. The range of velocities was extended to 100 mph. It is concluded that (1) the removal of the force sense feedback mechanism acts to reduce the ratio of the estimated to the presented or actual range of velocities. (2) There is direct variation of the absolute error with velocity as the range is extended to include high speeds. (3) Sensing of velocity based on peripheral visual stimulation appears to be more resistant to experimental artifacts, such as a monotonous environment, fatigue and the beta effect—apparent movement produced by an increase of illumination of part of the field—than frontal visual stimulation.