Monday, September 04, 2006
Tip #17: White is right
White light is the best for reading maps in most conditions - from half-light conditions during dwn/dusk, to pitch-black caves or under jungle canopies, to 'soft dispersed' moonlight. That means only one thing: LEDs. The problem with other coloured lights is that reading coloured maps becomes a problem. Annotation and route markings made with highlighters are easily missed if the light happens to correspond with the colour of the highlighter.
I understand that most standard halogen bulbs give off a yellow to orange-tinted light when battery power starts to drop off. Yellow highlighter markings, orange map features (usually secondary roads), and possibly brown map features (contour lines!!!) will become harder to see when viewed with an under-powered halogen light.
The worst one can do is make use of 'tactical' filters such as red or green in the hope of somehow preserving night vision. Red light will certainly obscure critical features like main roads red highlights, and annotations for dangerous or out-of-bound areas. Green light will hide both subtle and obvious changes in vegetation type or concentration on a map. The bottom line is that there is no need for 'tactical' light in an AR racing environment, where clarity in navigation should take priority over all other considerations.
LED lights do have limitations though. Poor quality or under-powered lights will give a blue tint, possibly obscuring key water features. 'Map glare' from pure white light, especially on high-owered systems, does tend to dazzle and cause 'blank spots' within one's vision field, and so navigator(s) will suffer some loss of night vision due to frequent referral to the maps and race notes. It is best to have a white light with variable light levels, so that glare is minimised whenever the maps have to be looked at.
White light is the best for reading maps in most conditions - from half-light conditions during dwn/dusk, to pitch-black caves or under jungle canopies, to 'soft dispersed' moonlight. That means only one thing: LEDs. The problem with other coloured lights is that reading coloured maps becomes a problem. Annotation and route markings made with highlighters are easily missed if the light happens to correspond with the colour of the highlighter.
I understand that most standard halogen bulbs give off a yellow to orange-tinted light when battery power starts to drop off. Yellow highlighter markings, orange map features (usually secondary roads), and possibly brown map features (contour lines!!!) will become harder to see when viewed with an under-powered halogen light.
The worst one can do is make use of 'tactical' filters such as red or green in the hope of somehow preserving night vision. Red light will certainly obscure critical features like main roads red highlights, and annotations for dangerous or out-of-bound areas. Green light will hide both subtle and obvious changes in vegetation type or concentration on a map. The bottom line is that there is no need for 'tactical' light in an AR racing environment, where clarity in navigation should take priority over all other considerations.
LED lights do have limitations though. Poor quality or under-powered lights will give a blue tint, possibly obscuring key water features. 'Map glare' from pure white light, especially on high-owered systems, does tend to dazzle and cause 'blank spots' within one's vision field, and so navigator(s) will suffer some loss of night vision due to frequent referral to the maps and race notes. It is best to have a white light with variable light levels, so that glare is minimised whenever the maps have to be looked at.
