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MISCELLANEOUS
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The Armed Forces-National Research Council Vision
Committee—History 1944-1949 and Description of
Organizational Structure
1955
This report gives background and details on the origins of the Com-
mittee on Vision, its early objectives, and its activities during the war years.
In early 1944, informal contacts between officers of the Army and the Navy
revealed mutual concern with military problems, whose solution involved
detailed information of human visual capacity. It was suggested that a joint
military committee on vision would prove valuable in organizing existing
information and experience and in coordinating further research programs
undertaken by the military services. In addition, it was agreed that the
knowledge and experience of civilian specialists should be brought to bear
on the visual problems.
As a result of these informal discussions, a request was submitted by the
Army and Navy and to the Director of the Office of Scientific Research and
Development (OSRD) for the establishment of a formal vision committee.
The Army-Navy-OSRD Vision Committee was organized in response to
this request. A full-time civilian executive secretary was appointed and
office quarters were arranged in the National Academy of Science building
in Washington. Official Army and Navy members of the committee were
designated to represent organizational units of the services, and civilian
scientists with professional competence in some aspect of visual science
were offically appointed from OSRD. The first meeting of the committee
was held in Washington on April 7, 1944. Twelve additional meetings were
held prior to the end of the war in August 1945.
Meetings of the committee were planned to encourage service person-
nel to present problems concerned with vision for consideration. Military
members contributed their practical experiences and the results of research
investigations they had conducted relevant to the problems. The OSRD
representatives gave professional counsel and also reported current experi-
mental results. The objective of the committee was to provide opportunity
for free and complete discussion of problems; the committee meetings
provided the mechanism for Laison between military personnel having full
appreciation of the problems and scientific experts with competence in
general and theoretical aspects of vision research.
Some estimate of the committee's influence during the war years may
be obtained by examining sample topics presented for discussion by the
military members during this period. A list of such topics is presented
1a7
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below specific reference to the minutes and proceedings of the committee
meetings.
1. Visual standards for military service and standardization of proce-
dures for visual examination.
2. Procedures for visual training, including lookout training, recogni-
tion training, and night vision training.
3. Solution of visibility problems including camouflage, visibility of
markers, signals, ships, aircraft, submerged objects, insignia, and
visibility in night ground, air, and sea operations.
4. Principles of instrument design for efficient presentation of visual
information.
5. Specifications of illumination quantity and quality for instruments
and working surfaces in order to secure optimum performance and
preserve dark adaptation.
6. Physiological effects on vision, including the effects of anosmia, pos-
itive acceleration, and ultraviolet and infrared radiation.
7. Principles of optical design and specification for optical equipment
such as sunglasses, sunscreening goggles, dark-adaptation goggles,
binoculars, telescopes, height-finders, and range finders.
50 pp. no figures no tables topical index of minutes and proceedings
Availability: National Technical Information Service ~IS), 5285 Port
Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.
108
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Information Requirements for the
Control of Combat Forces
J.W. Gebhard and R.~ Hanes, Editors
1959
A working group was established by the Committee on Vision with an
interest in the visual display area.
The field encompassed by the visual display of information is an
exceedingly broad one, which draws on physiological, psychological, and
engineering resources. The working group's tasks were as follows:
1. Determination of Armed Forces display requirements.
2. Analysis and classification of display requirements.
3. Compilation of display concepts and techniques.
4. Guidance for R&D work in visual displays, and
S. Measurement standards.
This proceedings volume is the result of a conference held on June
24-26, 1959, during which representatives of the several services presented
requirements for the display data used in making command decisions. The
military presentations and the ensuing discussion are of general interest,
both from the standpoint of decision making and the displays upon which
decisions are based.
These proceedings are published in two parts: one is an unclassified
summary and the other is the complete report, including the summary,
which is classified secret (see Inquiry Into Methods Used to Obtain Military
Information Requirements).
14 pp. 2 figures no tables 1 reference
Availability: Committee on Vision, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Wash-
ington, D.C. 20418.
109
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Inquiry Into Methods Used to Obtain Military
Information Requirements
1960
In 1958 a working group was established to ascertain what contri-
bution the committee might have to research and development programs
concerned with the visual display of data. The procedure adopted by the
working group to accomplish this is briefly as follows:
1. Determination of Armed Forces Data Presentaiion Requirements. ~
obtain the requirements of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the
Marine Corps for current and future visual displays and to supplement these
by requirements of the Federal Aviation Agency, the Weather Bureau, and
other potential users of visual displays.
2. Analysis and Classification of Data Presentation Requirements. 1b
analyze significant data presentation requirements in order to provide a
preliminary basis for classifying visual display needs, assessing the strengths
and weaknesses of present and proposed research and development pro-
grams in the visual display area.
3. Compilation of Display Concepts and TechnuIues. 1b survey the field
of visual displays for the purpose of establishing a file of past, present, and
future concepts and methodology and a list of techniques and equipment.
4. Guidance for Research and Development Work u' Visual Displays.
1b delineate areas for new work on visual displays based on the analyses
and compilations discussed above. The methods currently available for
determining data requirements for any system are described in Part I of
this report. Part II is an assessment of their merits. Part III describes a
procedure that is recommended at the present time and until much more
experimental data are available (see Information Requirements for the
Control of Combat Forces).
28 pp. no figures 1 table 7 references
Availability: National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port
Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.
110
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Visual Problems of the Armed Forces
Milton ~ Whitcomb, Editor
1962
The purpose of this report on visual problems of the Armed Forces is
to bring together the scientific papers that were presented at the Committee
on Vision's meeting on March 30-31, 1961, at the Smithsonian Auditorium
in Washington, D.C. Presentations were scheduled in four subject-matter
sessions: vision under reduced stimulus conditions; perceptual problems of
space travel; pictorial display for reconnaissance interpretation; and visual
processes and problems of battlefield surveillance in ground warfare.
Papers presented in this report are the following: "Review of Recent
Literature on Night Vision Testing," J.S. Kinney; "Contrast Thresholds as
a Function of Retinal Position and Target Size for the Light-Adapted Eye,"
J.H. Taylor; "The Problem of Motion Perception and Orientation in the
Ganzfeld," J.W. Miller and R.J. Hall; "The Electrophysiological Correlates
of Vision in a Uniform Visual Field," D.~. Tepas; "The Apparent Frontopar-
allel Plane, Stereoscopic Correspondence and Induced Cyclorotation of the
Eyes," G.S. Harker; "A Concept of Space Ravel and Operations," R.P. Hav-
iland; "Vision and the Mercury Capsule," OR. Jones and W.H. Hann, Jr.;
"Extant Perceptual Theories and the Perceptual World of Space Flight," W.
Bevan; "Photographic Image Quality," G.~ Fly; "Viewing Equipment for
the Photographic Interpreter," V. Van Keuren; "Image Enhancement as an
Aid to Reconnaissance Interpretation," R.E Andrea; "In-Flight Pictorial
Interpretation," C.W. Simon; "Goals, Problems, and Systems of Combat
Sulveillance in the U.S. Army," Kin Ward; "Problems in the Display and
Utilization of Numerous Classes of Battlefield Information," F.J. Harris;
"Problems in Meeting Future Combat Surveillance Display Requirements,"
R.P. DeVoe and J.E. Hoagbin; "Problems in the Design of Sensor Output
Displays," S.W. Smith; "Requirements for Research on Psychological Fac-
tors in Image Interpretation," J. Zeidner; and "Requirements for Research
on Uses of the Unaided Eye in the Collection of Battlefield Information,"
F.H. Thomas.
193 pp. 86 figures 13 tables 116 references
Availability: National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port
Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.
111
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Survey of Visual Research Literature
on ~lita~y Problems During World War IT
.
Lewis O. Harvey, Jr.
1970
World War II research papers, reports, and meeting agenda originating
in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States were collected
by the Committee on Vision at the end of the war. Classified during the
war, these papers remained largely disregarded in the following years.
The purpose of this report is to bring to public attention this ma-
teriaL The following topics are covered: night vision, target visibility,
aircraft recognition training, visual standards and pilot performance, tank
telescopes, dazzle, optical aids, and camouflage. The papers of Kenneth
Craik, who was intensively active during the war making contributions to
a number of committees and solving a wide range of problems, are also
covered.
Critical comments and evaluations are given along with updating of
the material when feasible.
392 pp. 112 figures 13 tables 404 references
Ava`Iabil~y: National Technical Information Seance ~S), 5285 Port
Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.
112
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