OPTIMAL COLOR SELECTION FOR THE E-2C ENHANCED DISPLAY UNIT

WORK IS PROPOSED TO PROVE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING AN OPTIMAL METHOD FOR DETERMINING COLOR CODING FOR MILITARY AIRCRAFT DISPLAYS, SPECIFICALLY, THE E-2C ENHANCED MAIN DISPLAY UNIT (EMDU). THE PHASE I WORK WILL: 1) PRODUCE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COLOR CODING AND ONE OR MORE COLOR SETS FOR THE E-2C EMDU; 2) DEMONSTRATE THE PRACTICALITY AND UTILITY OF A RULE BASED PROCEDURE FOR COLOR CODING SPECIFICATION AND AN ALGORITHMIC PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION OF MAXIMALLY DISCRIMINABLE COLORS. THE CODING RULES WILL BE DEVELOPED FROM CURRENT COLOR CODING PRINCIPLES. THE COLOR SET SPECIFICATION (IN CIE 1931 OR 1976 CIELUV CHROMATICITY COORDINATES) WILL BE THE PRODUCT OF A COLOR DIFFERENCE ALGORITHM TO BE DEVELOPED FROM RECENTLY PUBLISHED RESEARCH ON COLOR SELECTION. IN PHASE II THE CODING RULES AND COLOR SELECTION ALGORITHM DEVELOPED IN PHASE I WILL BE INTEGRATED,AND PARTIALLY AUTOMATED TO PRODUCE A RELATIVELY SIMPLE AND EASILY USED COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN/EXPERT SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING COLOR CODING SUITES FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF MILITARY AIRCRAFT DISPLAYS. THIS SYSTEM WILL ALLOW DESIGN ENGINEERS AND OTHERS TO MAKE OPTIMAL USE OF COLOR TO HIGHLIGHT, GROUP AND SEGREGATED INFORMATION IN COMPLEX, MULTIDIMENSIONAL DISPLAYS.