Background complexity can mitigate poor camouflage

Avoiding detection through camouflage is often key to survival. However, an animal's appearance is not the only factor affecting conspicuousness: background complexity also alters detectability. This has been experimentally demonstrated for both artificially patterned backgrounds in the laboratory and natural backgrounds in the wild, but only for targets that already match the background well. Do habitats of high visual complexity provide concealment to even relatively poorly camouflaged animals? Using artificial prey which differed in their degrees of background matching to tree bark, we were able to determine their survival, under bird predation, with respect to the natural complexity of the background. The latter was quantified using low-level vision metrics of feature congestion (or ‘visual clutter’) adapted for bird vision. Higher background orientation clutter (edges with varying orientation) reduced the detectability of all but the poorest background-matching camouflaged treatments; higher background luminance clutter (varying achromatic lightness) reduced average mortality for all treatments. Our results suggest that poorer camouflage can be mitigated by more complex backgrounds, with implications for both camouflage evolution and habitat preferences.

The Visualization Representation of Space-Time-Path in The Space-Time-Cube

Map is a traditional visualization tool to represent distribution and interaction of spatial objects or spatial phenomenon. However, with the continuous development of acquisition and processing technologies for spatio-temporal data, traditional map can hardly meet the visualization requirement for this type of data. In other words, the dynamic information about spatial object or phenomenon cannot be expressed fully by traditional map. The Space-Time-Cube (STC), as a three-dimensional visualization environment, whose base represents the two-dimensional geographical space and whose height represents the temporal dimension, can simultaneously represent the spatial distribution as well as the temporal changes of spatio-temporal data. For some spatial object or phenomenon, its moving trajectory can be visualized in STC as a Space-Time-Path (STP), by which the speed and state of motion can be clearly reflected. Noticeably, the problem of visual clutter about STP is inevitably due to the complexity of three-dimensional visualization. In order to reduce the impact of visual clutter, this paper discusses different aspects about visualization representation of STP in the STC. The multiple scales representation and the multiple views display can promote interactive experience of users, and the application of different visual variables can help to represent different kinds of attribute information of STP. With the visualization of STP, spatio-temporal changes and attributive characters of spatial object or phenomenon can be represented and analysed.

Individual differences in visual search performance extend from artificial arrays to naturalistic environments.

Visual search is a universal human activity in naturalistic environments. Traditionally, visual search is investigated under tightly controlled conditions, where head-restricted participants locate a minimalistic target in a cluttered array presented on a computer screen. Do classic findings of visual search extend to naturalistic settings, where participants actively explore complex, real-world scenes? Here, we leverage advances in virtual reality (VR) technology to relate individual differences in classic visual search paradigms to naturalistic search behavior. In a naturalistic visual search task, participants looked for an object within their environment via a combination of head-turns and eye-movements using a head-mounted display. Then, in a classic visual search task, participants searched for a target within a simple array of colored letters using only eye-movements. We tested how set size, a property known to limit visual search within computer displays, predicts the efficiency of search behavior inside immersive, real-world scenes that vary in levels of visual clutter. We found that participants' search performance was impacted by the level of visual clutter within real-world scenes. Critically, we also observed that individual differences in visual search efficiency in classic search predicted efficiency in real-world search, but only when the comparison was limited to the forward-facing field of view for real-world search. These results demonstrate that set size is a reliable predictor of individual performance across computer-based and active, real-world visual search behavior.

Beyond visual clutter: the interplay among products, advertisements, and the overall webpage

PurposeLittle research has been done to understand how individual elements (e.g. advertisements) within a webpage are processed and evaluated when visual complexity is increased. Thus, this study aimed to investigate how consumers allocate attention and evaluate products and advertisements on complex webpages when they are casually browsing.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted two experiments to test the causal effects of different degrees of visual complexity on consumer responses to products and advertisements. An eye-tracking experiment (n = 90) and a follow-up online experiment (n = 121) were conducted using undergraduate students as participants.FindingsParticipants formed a global impression from the overall webpage complexity, which spilled over to evaluation of individual elements on the webpage (e.g. product, advertisement). The inverted U-shaped relationships (vs. linear negative relationships) between webpage visual complexity and attitude toward the webpage, products, and advertisements were observed. The focal product was given a consistent level of attention regardless of the complexity level.Practical implicationsThis study provides implications for website organization and design to maximize positive consumer experiences and marketing effectiveness. The findings provide implications for retailers and advertisement buyers.Originality/valueThis study expanded the knowledge by examining the interplay between individual elements of webpages and the whole webpage complexity when consumers browse visually complex webpages. It is a novel finding that the overall webpage complexity effect spills over to locally attended products or advertisements.

Traveling through light clutter: Path integration and panorama guided navigation in the Sonoran Desert ant, Novomessor cockerelli

Foraging ants use multiple navigational strategies, including path integration and visual panorama cues, which are used simultaneously and weighted based upon context, the environment and the species’ sensory ecology. In particular, the amount of visual clutter in the habitat predicts the weighting given to the forager’s path integrator and surrounding panorama cues. Here, we characterize the individual cue use and cue weighting of the Sonoran Desert ant, Novomessor cockerelli, by testing foragers after local and distant displacement. Foragers attend to both a path-integration-based vector and the surrounding panorama to navigate, on and off foraging routes. When both cues were present, foragers initially oriented to their path integrator alone, yet weighting was dynamic, with foragers abandoning the vector and switching to panorama-based navigation after a few meters. If displaced to unfamiliar locations, experienced foragers travelled almost their full homeward vector (~85%) before the onset of search. Through panorama analysis, we show views acquired on-route provide sufficient information for orientation over only short distances, with rapid parallel decreases in panorama similarity and navigational performance after even small local displacements. These findings are consistent with heavy path integrator weighting over the panorama when the local habitat contains few prominent terrestrial cues.

Temporal scatterplots

Visualizing high-dimensional data on a 2D canvas is generally challenging. It becomes significantly more difficult when multiple time-steps are to be presented, as the visual clutter quickly increases. Moreover, the challenge to perceive the significant temporal evolution is even greater. In this paper, we present a method to plot temporal high-dimensional data in a static scatterplot; it uses the established PCA technique to project data from multiple time-steps. The key idea is to extend each individual displacement prior to applying PCA, so as to skew the projection process, and to set a projection plane that balances the directions of temporal change and spatial variance. We present numerous examples and various visual cues to highlight the data trajectories, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the method for visualizing temporal data.

Investigation of interaction among factors underlying construction hazard identification

Although previous studies explored the effect of relationships between some factors on hazard identification performance, there is still a need to better understand the interactive mechanisms among factors in the hazard recognition process. This study explored the interactions among factors in the search and decision phases on hazard identification performance. A safety inspection experiment was conducted in a civil engineering laboratory, during which the eye movements of the participants were recorded. The experimental data were entered into a three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) model to examine the factors’ interactions. The results revealed that experience and risk tolerance interactively affect hazard identification performance, and visual clutter and time to first fixation respectively have main effects on hazard identification performance. The findings theoretically supplement knowledge about the interactive mechanisms of factors during the hazard recognition process, and will play a critical role in providing practical guidance for safety training.

Designing an Experience: Maps and Signs at the Archaeological Site of Ancient Troy

Maps and signage are essential for visitors to understand and appreciate the cultural, historical, and natural importance of a heritage site. Unfortunately, the on-site maps and signage at the archaeological site of ancient Troy near Çanakkale, Turkey, create a poor visitor experience. A UNESCO report found that the site suffered from “poor and confusing wayfinding” and “visual clutter and chaos” (Riorden 2009, 9–10). To understand how the maps and signage failed to help visitors, I completed a content analysis of the maps and signage found at Troy in summer 2014, based on recommendations from the semiotics of cartography and the field of experiential graphic design. The analysis uses a case study of the archaeological site of Ancient Troy to derive insights into user experience design at preserved sites of cultural or historical significance.