|
|
|
January 2000
LIGHTING
RESEARCH:
Hi-tech dashboards
In about three years, when you buy a car manufactured by DaimlerChrysler,
you’ll be spending a lot of time glancing at, and relying upon,
the product of John Van Derlofske’s research.
Van Derlofske, senior research scientist and head of transportation
lighting for the School of Architecture’s Lighting Research
Center at Rensselaer Polytechnictechnic Institute, is developing the next
generation of lighting for automotive instrument panels.
“The
way society is going is toward more and more information. Within
a few years you’ll be able to get navigation systems, faxes,
e-mail, and there’s no metrics to define these things in a
car. How do you display it so people can understand it quickly and
safely?” said Van Derlofske, who joined the LRC in 1998 after
working three years for Chrysler.
Since last January, Van Derlofske and two graduate students have
conducted hundreds of DaimlerChrysler-funded dashboard lighting
tests. In a black-curtained room in the LRC, subjects are asked
to watch two lights on a radio control panel and to compare their
relative brightness.
“DaimlerChrysler
wants to quantify how people see displayed information. We want
something that’s based on visual human response,” Van
Derlofske said.
Although
the tests involve radios, the results can be applied to the rest
of the dashboard— speedometer, tachometer, odometer, and fuel
and oil gauges.
“They want the readability of the dashboard to be quick, easy,
and efficient. A lot of things go into readability—color, size,
distance, brightness. They’re concerned with safety but they’re
also concerned with aesthetics. They want it to look good,”
he said.
CONTACT: Theresa Bourgeois, (518) 276-2840,
bourgt@rpi.edu
Top
|
