Green light or Red light

[David M]

Here's an interesting question.
On electronic targets, do you watch the Green light coming "on" or the Red light going "out".
Which do you react to quicker ?
The old Suis targets the Red light is on top with the Green is under the target.
The new laser target both Red and Green lights are in a reflector on top of the target.
Easy on mechanical targets, you react to the pre turn "whoosh" of air.
A typical lift on paper targets, eye focus is part way down range under the target.
Picking up the sights as they pass with trigger pressure starting at the base of the target.
Do the electronic targets now need a higher pre sight focal point to react ?
What do you think....

[Gwhite]

The distinction gets worse if you are red/green color blind. Before, you could tell by the location of the light. I believe now that they are in the same location, they have gone to a green circle, and a red X, but that takes a good bit more visual discrimination than just top vs bottom.

[JamesHH]

On the rare occasion I've done it look at the green light, previously looked at the ground below the turning target.

Its hard when the surround is also green



Also LEDs have a very sudden transition which is hard to pick, unlike incandescents where you can see the glow expanding, its the same with modern brake/tail lights - if you blink you miss the change.

At the start of the pandemic I did a bunch of training videos, not sure if this link works.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Also did another set with the targets more blurred, I can upload them if anyone is interested.

[BobGee]

In motor racing, certainly MotoGP and World Superbike (not sure about other disciplines), the organisers dropped the green light and opted for just the red light(s) going out. Less confusion I guess and no colour blindness issues. Would make sense to opt for an arrangement like that on electronic targets.

Bob

[David M]

Cannot find any photo's of the new Laser Score but here is a computer image from a Sius pdf.
The red/green reflector is on top.

LaserScore.png (10.99 KiB) Viewed 805 times

[Gwhite]

Here's a picture of the mirror & LED board arrangement from a well used MegaLink system:

The mirror is a cheap piece of aluminized corroplast that won't deflect stray shots & it easily replaced. The board has a ring of green LEDs and an "X" of red LEDs.

[BobGee]

Here's an interesting question.
On electronic targets, do you watch the Green light coming "on" or the Red light going "out".
Which do you react to quicker ?

Surely the Red light going out is the critical signal. How you become aware of it might vary from shooter to shooter. I imagine peripheral vision is sufficient.

Bob

[David M]

Reaction time test Red/Green
https://www.arealme.com/reaction-test/en/

[Gwhite]

I'm not sure if the speed of peripheral vison is any slower than focused central vision.

Visual reaction time is always much slower than reaction to sound. I once toured a naval vessel, and they still had "code blinker" lights for communicating ship to ship. Apparently the fastest anyone could read them was around 25 or 30 words per minute. Really good Morse code radio operators can receive at over 75 words per minute.

So, a buzzer system would give you good head start...

The "problem" is that the electronic targets will activate when the lights change. You dawdle for 200 msec before you realize it, but the electronics will turn the targets off precisely on time, so you lose that delay.