Symbol Identification as a Function of Misregistration in Color Additive Displays

Abstract

The relation of misregistration in color additive projection displays to speed and accuracy of symbol identification was investigated. Ss viewed 36 letters and numbers, presented simultaneously in seven colors (white, red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, cyan), under 7 conditions of misregistration (0 to 200%). Performance seriously deteriorated from 67 to 200% misregistration, but a misregistration as high as 100% was necessary to produce a level of performance which was significantly lower than that obtained under perfect registration conditions. Under misregistration conditions, red and blue were the most efficient color codes, while cyan and white were the least efficient. It was concluded that (1) future studies might profitably investigate misregistrations of smaller increments lying between 67 and 100% misregistration, and (2) the relative tolerance of individual colors to deleterious misregistration effects should be taken into consideration when color codes are assigned to critical information categories.