A New (Color) Vision for Pilot Safety and Performance

  • Published
  • By John Schutte
  • 711th Human Performance Wing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Air Force Research Laboratory human performance experts are working with industry to implement a new color vision test that addresses issues with current test methods and, consequently, improves warfighter--particularly pilot--safety and effectiveness. Dubbed the Cone Contrast Test, the software-generated clinical test not only indicates deficiency type (red, green, or blue) and severity (mild to severe), but also quantifies the realm of normal color vision. The lab-developed CCT also distinguishes hereditary color vision loss from that caused by disease, trauma, medications, and environmental conditions. Fueled by Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Innova Systems, Inc., the new capability supports Air Force Operational-Based Vision Assessment, a program highlighting the importance of recognizing a candidate's level of deficiency in order to weigh the risks posed to performance and, ultimately, mission success.

Whether genetic or acquired, color vision deficiency--commonly known as color blindness--makes it challenging (or even impossible) to hold certain jobs in military and civilian sectors alike. In the case of AF pilots, the capacity to see colors accurately is instrumental to success and, in some scenarios, survival. Consequently, candidates must be excluded as pilots if they have deficient color vision, notwithstanding the relative degree of deficiency. Unfortunately, current test methods typically provide only a pass/fail determination, an approach notorious for incorrectly labeling as "normal" [that] color vision which is, in fact, deficient. In the advanced, color-rich, modern military aircraft cockpit, such undetected deficiency--however slight--has proven problematic.

A person's respective ability to see colors depends upon a complex mechanism involving the retina, a neuromembrane lining the inside-back portion of the human eye. The retina contains two types of light-sensitive cells, rods and cones, which convert light energy into signals carried (via optic nerve) to the brain. Only the cones--characterized as red, green, and blue types--are sensitive to color. The CCT is superior to conventional color vision testing in that it presents a random sequence of colored letters, each visible to just one cone type at a time, in order to provide a cone-specific numeric score. This score aids decisions about occupational selection; it also facilitates the detection and monitoring of disease.

AFRL is teaming with Innova to transition its color vision test technology into a widely available, lab-quality capability delivered as a field-deployable unit. Implementing the CCT at more than 100 AF bases across the US will reduce the need for travel to test-specific bases, netting estimated savings to the tune of $100,000 per year. Savings resulting from improved safety, performance, and accident avoidance--though more difficult to predict--could easily reach tens of millions of dollars for every military aircraft accident avoided. Since the prototype CCT's trial runs at the USAF Academy and at Brooks City-Base, Texas, the AF has seen a dramatic increase in the percentage of candidates accurately identified as having color vision deficiency. Accordingly, AF senior leadership has directed servicewide fielding within the year, and other Department of Defense, international, and civilian agencies are moving to employ the system as well.