Light Boxes

[hellblade]

Hi all

Im a marshal who is currently doing engineering at uni, ive come up with some ideas for new versions/tech for use in the lightboxes which are starting to appear at circuits across the uk.

My question to you drivers is (within reason) what would make it easier for you guys to see them? or what do you think could be improved in the current models?

Any comments would be appreciated and any ideas that i use will result in the origionator being given full acknowledgment in my dissertaion.

Ta

Luke

[Chris Y]

Quite honestly, they do a flipping good job of what they're intended for - i.e. a big, bright, illuminated version of a marshal's flag.

Now whether they should be modified to provide further information to drivers, or for the way they present that information to be changed, I'm not sure.

Short of having a light on your own dashboard that is triggered by proximity to these lightboxes, and shows the same information (which would be cool, but technically challenging), I'm not sure they can be improved.

Having said that, the usual problem with flags at marshals' posts is that when you're following a car pretty closely, you can't always see them. With the safety requirements, sometimes marshals' posts are off to the side of the sight line for drivers when braking or turning in, etc. The lightboxes suffer the same problem to some extent, as they're usually based near marshals' posts, albeit usually mounted a bit higher up.

If they could be mounted a bit closer to where the driver is looking at any given time, then that would be great - within the reasonable limits of safety - i.e. if someone goes off on a corner, you wouldn't want to be smashing into one of these things.

Failing that, as I say, a light on the driver's own dashboard would be a great solution

[leonidas]

Since the 1960s there has been a lot of work done on the location and visibility of highway signs and traffic light signals. If you haven't already done so you may want to look at this literature for ideas as a lot of it will have relevance for motorsport. Colour, size, angle to the ground, height and font (for alphanumeric sights) are all factors...

I suspect the main reasons for flag infringements in amateur motorsport is simply 'tunnel vision' - drivers are focused on the car in front or that dark bit of tarmac which is the turn-in point, rather than what's going on around them. (Sadly some of the 'racing driver manuals' seem to encourage this in my view). I've often wondered if a more radical solution might be to locate lights at track level or even in the track - maybe like the flashing cats eyes one already seems in some countries. But maybe that's beyond your study?

[hellblade]

the first thing i did was look at the specs, unfortunately the boxes have to be well away from the track due to safety and the fact that most of them are linked upto the mains (car + mains voltage= possibility of fried driver).

One of my ideas was to have a control zone for each box and when a car entered that zone they would pick up signals that would also turn on an led bank on the dash etc.

Good idea with the cats eyes, but with my uni budget i doubt i could manage to do that one, although i could probably propose as future work.

Thanks guys