Date of Award
May 2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Psychology
Committee Member
Benjamin R Stephens
Committee Member
Patrick Rosopa
Committee Member
Richard Tyrrell
Abstract
Trip and fall events can be dangerous and result in injury. One-way trip events start is when an observer's minimum foot clearance (MFC) is smaller than the height change. One reason why the observer might not change their MFC in response to the height change is that the height change is not conspicuous. An important aspect of conspicuity is illuminance levels. In this study, we wish to explore an online method that uses digital manipulation of the amount of light in the photo to simulate illuminance levels (lightness levels). Previous studies with object detection suggest that the lower the illuminance levels the harder the object is to detect. This study found that people do indeed judge height changes as more conspicuous as the height change increases and as lightness levels increase. Major conclusions were that shadowing cues transfer well from in lab studies to pictures. Another conclusion is that there could be a danger to pedestrians at medium and low lightness levels.
Recommended Citation
Staats, Rachel, "Conspicuity of Walkway Height Changes" (2021). All Theses. 3522.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3522