Inno

University Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology

Human Factor
Explain and list down the factors affecting sight clarity/sharpness vision

Muhammad Nizam Bin Muhamad Class: 7 Bachelors 3 Date of submission: 28 July 2011

53259208167

The eye is one of the most sensitive senses of the human body. This is shows by having an approximately of 1.2 billion nerve cells from the retinas to the area of the brain. Being this sensitive, there are various factors that can affect the clarity of someones vision. The figure below is showing the normal anatomy of an eye.

A normal person would have 20/20 vision acuity. This means that the person would be able to see and clarify the detail at 20 feet. If a person has acuity of 20/40 this means that the person can see what a normal person can see at 40 feet. The person with 20/40 acuity is short sighted. The 20/40 is showing the ratio of a person sharpness vision to what a normal persons sharpness vision. There are various factors that will affect a persons acuity. These factors are: I. II. III. IV. Physical factors The influence of ingested foreign object Environmental factors Factors associated with object being viewed.

Physical Factors

The

first

physical

factor

is

Hypemetropia

also

known

as

as farsightedness, longsightedness or hyperopia. Hypermetropia is a defect of vision caused by an imperfection in the eye (often when the eyeball is too short or the lens cannot become round enough), causing difficulty focusing on near objects, and in extreme cases causing a sufferer to be unable to focus on objects at any distance. As an object moves toward the eye, the eye must increase its optical power to keep the image in focus on the retina. If the power of the cornea and lens is insufficient, as in hyperopia, the image will appear blurred. In a hypermetropic eye, the light is not bent sufficiently so that it focuses at a point behind the retina. Here a person sees well for distance but near vision is difficult and causes strain. Hence hypermetropic people are called long-sighted. This is illustrated in the figure below.

Secondly is Myopia. It is a refractive defect of the eye in which collimated light produces image focus in front of the retina when accommodation is relaxed. In simpler terms, myopia is a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina which is in the back of the eye. Because of this, the image that one sees is out of focus when looking at a distant object but comes into focus when looking at a close object. Eye care professionals most commonly correct myopia through the use of corrective

lenses, such as glasses or contact lenses. It may also be corrected by refractive surgery, though there are cases of associated side effects. The corrective lenses have a negative optical power (i.e. are concave) which compensates for the excessive positive diopters of the myopic eye.

The influence of ingested foreign object Vision can be adversely affected by the use of certain drugs and medication, alcohol, and smoking cigarettes. With smoking, carbon monoxide which builds up in the blood stream allows less oxygen to carried in the blood to the eyes. This is known as hypoxia and can impair rapidly the sensitivity of the rods.

Environmental Factors Vision can be improved by increasing the lighting level but only up to a point, as the law of diminishing returns to operate. Also increased in illumination could lead to result in increased glare. Older people are more affected by the glare of the reflected light then younger people. Moving from an extremely bright environment to a dimmer one has an effect of vision being severely reduced until the eyes get use to less light being available. This is because eyes have become light adopted. If an engineer works in a dark environment for a very long time, his eyes becomes gradually dark adapted allowing better visual acuity. This can take about 7 minutes for the cones and 30 minutes for the rods. As a consequence, moving between a bright hangar to a dark apron at night can mean that the maintenance engineer have to wait for his eyes to adjust. In low light condition, it is easier to focus if you look closely to one sight of an object. This allows the image to fall outside the fovea and onto the part of the retina which has many rods. Any airborne particle such as dust, rain or mist can interfere with the transmission of light through the air, distorting what is seen. This can be even worse when spectacles are worn as they are susceptible of getting dirty, wet, misted up or scratched. Engineers who wear contact lenses should take advice from their optician associated with the maximum wear time usually 8 to 18 hours. Goggle should be worn whenever necessary. Factors associated with object being viewed

Many factors associated with the object being viewed can also influence vision. We use information from the objects we are looking at to help distinguish what we are seeing. These are known as visual cues. Visual cues often refer to the comparison of object of known size to known objects. An example of this is that we associate small objects with being further away. Similarity, if an object does not stand out well from its background, it is harder to distinguish its edges and hence its shape. Movement and relative motion of an object, as well as distance and angle of the object from the viewer, can all increase visual demands.