On Quantification Methods of Visibility of Steps:Basic Investigation of Step Height Recognition
Steps are extremely common in the living and working space. They can also be found outdoors, in parks, streets, and building sites. However, many injuries and accidents occur on and around steps, whose major causes are missing the step, stumbling and tumbling. The visibility of the step seems to be one of the most essential factors in these accidents. In the past years, some researchers studied the influence of visual characteristics of steps and tried to quantify their visibility by applying psychological methods. However, appropriate methods for quantifying the visibility of steps have not yet been established. In this research, at first, we composed the sensory scales of step visibility, and examined the contents and tendency of the relations of these scales. In the sensory tests, the test subjects were asked to judge the visibility of steps when viewing them at a fixed position from above. After the tests, we considered that the nosing visibility is independent of the height visibility, and the total visibility of the steps and height visibility have almost the same meaning in the conditions of this research. Second, we examined the relation between the height visibility of steps and visual characteristics of the step photos. In the sensory tests, test subjects were asked to judge the horizontal deviation of the step photos which were taken at the position of the right and left eyes. After the tests, we considered that the horizontal deviation is a major factor when judging the riser height of step.
Yonghak KANG Takamasa MIKAMI
Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics, Tokyo Tech, JAPAN Assoc. Prof., Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics, Tokyo Tech, JAPAN
国际会议
17th World Congress on Ergonomics(第十七届国际人类工效学大会)
北京
英文
1-6
2009-08-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）