Effects of the viewing context on target detection. Implications for road lighting design

The Small Target Visibility (STV) model is the main model used to assess the quality of road lighting installations (IESNA, 2000). However, this model is based on a simple detection task in foveal vision using psychophysical data from laboratory conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a complex background and apparent motion on target detection performance in mesopic vision, for three luminance contrasts, with reference to the STV scenario. To do so, participants were invited to detect standard square targets varying in terms of contrast presented in three Conditions: a uniform background, still images, and a video. Luminance levels were chosen in the mesopic domain relevant for road lighting at night. Images and video were chosen in relation to a driving task at night. The results showed that both the spatial context and the apparent motion had a negative impact on peripheral target detection performance: contrasts which are easy to detect in conditions close to the STV reference data may lead to poor performance if one adds context variables. These results give evidence that the STV model used for road lighting design based on laboratory data is limited, which strengthens previous results (Mayeur et al., 2008). The results are discussed in relation to the field factor used by practitioners to compensate for the differences between the STV reference scenario (detection of a small square target on a lit road while driving) and the STV psychophysical reference data.