FUNCTIONAL EVALUATION OF MULTICOLOR ELECTROLUMINESCENT STATUS DISPLAYS.

An electroluminescent display for pictorially presenting aircraft flight surface and landing apparatus configuration was designed and constructed. The ability of observers to detect errors on this display was compared to similar performance with a conventional aircraft display containing the same information. By the installation of a transparent red-emitting plate to the front of the electroluminescent panel, a third display mode, that of dynamic color electroluminescence, was established. Hue changes were effected, using standard additive mixing techniques, by varying the intensity of the electroluminescent emission. The three displays were shown to six highly trained subjects in a counterbalanced order. A random number of errors appeared on each of the 60 presentations of each display. Subjects were asked to identify each error by depressing the appropriate response pushbutton as rapidly as possible. Errors were defined as flight surface and landing gear configuration conditions inappropriate to the given mode of flight. These errors were color-cued on the color electroluminescent display. The test results indicated that performance with the electroluminescent displays tended to be superior to that with the conventional display in terms of both errors and response time. Both electroluminescent displays yielded significantly lower response times when compared to the conventional display; the color electroluminescent display yielded significantly fewer errors when compared with the conventional display. Subjects' comments regarding the electroluminescent displays and their operational potential were generally favorable. (Author)