Effect of Pixel Height, Display Height, and Vertical Resolution on the Detection of a Simple Vertical Line Signal in Visual Noise

Abstract

Spatial resolution is one of the parameters that engineers designing digital displays must consider. Three experiments are described that investigate the effects of vertical spatial resolution and the interrelated parameters, pixel height and display height, on the visibility of straight vertical line signals in visual noise. A signal detection analysis of the results showed that detection efficiency was unaffected by vertical resolution and pixel height, whereas an increase in display/signal height resulted in a decline in efficiency. The decline is attributed to the increasing difficulty the visual system encounters when integrating luminance over an increasing spatial extent. It is suggested that in practical digital displays of the kind described here, pixels should be as short as possible in order that the available display information be compressed into the smallest possible height.