The Effect of Shaded Relief on Map Information Accessibility

DeLucia, Alan A.

doi:10.1179/caj.1972.9.1.14

Cited by 15 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Kempf and Poock (1960) found that adding layer tints to contour lines significantly increased time to find specific grid coordinates. In another study Delucia (1972) found that adding shading to contour lines significantly increased the time required for srubjects to perform a location task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An approach to assessment of relief formats for hardcopy topographic maps.

Potash¹,

Farrell²,

Jeffrey³

1979

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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I FOREWORDThe Human Factors Technical Area of the Army Research Institute (ARI) is concerned with the demands of the future battlefield for increased man-machine complexity to acquire, transmit, process, disseminate, and utilize information. The research is focused on the interface problems and interactions within command and control centers and is concerned with such areas as topographic products and procedures, tactical symbology, information management, user-oriented systems, staff operations and procedures, and sensor systems integration and utilization.One area of special interest is that of human factors problems in the design of topographic products and procedures. Maps are an essential part of a large number of military tasks at all staff levels. Many map users report, and have, difficulty in visualizing terrain features from current maps which use contour lines to portray relief. Methods for supplementing contour lines with other relief formats have been developed but assessing the value of supplementing contour lines with other modes of relief portrayal remains a problem. In order to make a decision regarding the cost-benefits tradeoff of supplementing contour lines, the map designer must have some idea of how different supplementary relief formats will affect user performance. This publication presents a technique for assessing map relief legibility and reports initial findings from employing this technique to evaluate use of shading and layer tints as supplementary relief formats. The results of this initial work indicate that adding layer tints to contour lines is beneficial for some types of map reading tests. However, addition of shaded relief to contour line maps offers no advantages over the addition of layer tints, and can decrease performance for some tasks. To develop an appropriate methodology and carry out an assessment of the legibility of different relief formats. Procedure and Findings:The types of relief information that must be extracted by representative users of hardcopy maps were analyzed. Using the results of this analysis, a Relief Assessment Test was designed to determine the merits of supplementing contour lines with other relief formats. The Relief Assessment Test contains eight types of problems: landform identification, ridge-valley identification, slope identification, identification of high-low areas on the map, spot elevation problems, vertical profile identification, terrain visualization, and defilade. Use of the Relief Assessment Test assumes previous experience and training in the use of contour line maps, but the test does contain a review of zelevant aspects of map reading. When this test is administered as a self-paced test, subjects typically take 3 to 5 hours.The Relief Assessment Test was produced in three foxmatsi contour lines, contour lines plus layer tints, and contour lines plus shading. Initial research was undertaken to assess these three map formats empirically. Subjects were 48 Army officers and NCOs experienced in reading contour maps and using them for...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An approach to assessment of relief formats for hardcopy topographic maps.

Potash¹,

Farrell²,

Jeffrey³

1979

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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“…Various methods have been tested with regards to accessibility of information and visualization of terrain. These studies include: Some Effects of Layer Tinting of Maps (Kempf and Poock 1969); The Effect of Shaded Relief on Map Information Accessibility (Delucia 1972); Some Objective Tests of the Legibility of Relief Maps (Phillips et al 1975); and An Approach to Assessment of Relief Formats for Hardcopy Topographic Maps (Potash et al 1979).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Map Design Enhancement for Terrain Visualization by Army Aviators

Thompson¹,

Kimerling²

1999

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1. Create a new document using white for the contents and in RGB mode. Keep it small, maybe 64x64 pixels.2. Add a new layer and zoom in to at least 400%. With the pencil tool set to the one-pixel brush, add a set of an even number of alternating pixels:3. Make the background layer invisible and then select the new layer again.4. Select just this group of pixels and from the Edit menu choose "Define Pattern."5. Now select the entire area of the new layer, and from the Edit menu choose "Fill.6. In the Fill dialog, select "Pattern" from the "Contents" drop-down and click "OK"7. The new layer should now be filled with an alternating pattern of transparent and non-transparent pixels. Deselect all.8. In the layers palette, click on the new layer and check the "Preserve Transparency" checkbox. Make the background layer visible again.9. Now to experiment with dithering combinations, just fill the background layer with one web color, and the new layer with another (the "preserve Transparency" option will allow you to color only the non-transparent pixels with the "Fill" command/ 10. At 100% zoom, you should not see any pixels with a good combination of colors.

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The influence of texture gradients on relief interpretation from isopleth maps

Underwood¹

1980

Processing of Visible Language

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The Effect of Shaded Relief on Map Information Accessibility

Cited by 15 publications

References 1 publication

An approach to assessment of relief formats for hardcopy topographic maps.

An approach to assessment of relief formats for hardcopy topographic maps.

Map Design Enhancement for Terrain Visualization by Army Aviators

The influence of texture gradients on relief interpretation from isopleth maps

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