A Standardized Lantern for Testing Colour Vision

Abstract

A Lantern for testing Colour-Vision is arranged to show test colours in pairs as in the Board of Trade Lantern. It is adapted to use electric light, and is standardized by stringent testing. T'he paper discusses the experiments and considerations which led to the formulationt of the allowable tolerances in the transmission and colour co-ordinate specifications of the filters, the colour temperature of the lamps and so on. The results of tests on normal and colour-defective subjects are described.

Color vision in civil aviation

“…The unique lantern design and form have not changed very much since their origin in the early 20 th century. [ 17 ] To overcome this problem, computerized testing of color vision was innovated and it was found that the computer made software able to reproduce results comparable with the existing MLT. [ 18 ] As far as newer equipment is concerned, the anomaloscope is considered as the gold standard for color vision testing in clinical research.…”

Comparative Analysis of Methods and Tests for Testing Colour Vision of Professional Seafarers

“…its reduced modifications (Martin et al, 1976;Sloan and Habel,1955;Wright, 1946;Pickford and Lakowski, 1960;Pickford, 1949).…”

“…It is possible to create conditions existing in real life in traffic, such as conditions of reduced visibility. Special lamps, the so called lanterns (Martin lantern), that are used for colour vision testing in the army, police, navy, rail, air, road traffic, and that serve for colour vision testing in hard working conditions (Martin et al, 1976). Their great disadvantage is that they cannot actually diagnose colour disorder, or its degree, but they triage candidates who do well with coloured signal devices.…”

“…Their great disadvantage is that they cannot actually diagnose colour disorder, or its degree, but they triage candidates who do well with coloured signal devices. Except in photopic conditions (well-lit conditions), it is possible to carry out research in scotopic conditions (in the darkness) (Martin et al, 1976).…”

A century of visual research at Imperial College, 1886 to 1986

“…In the transport services one of the most widely used colour vision tests is the lantern test in which the small lights which the subject has to identify should correspond quite closely to the signal lights used in practice, both in respect of intensity and colour. Over the years several different lanterns have been developed for the various transport systems, and in the 1930s Dr Martin was asked to design a new lantern for use by the Royal Navy and for the Royal Air Force (Martin, 1939). In 1970 we were asked to design a replacement for the Martin lantern which was no longer commercially available.…”