Introduction

Conspicuity is the property of an object to stand out from its surroundings and attract visual attention. The use of high-visibility safety apparel (HVSA) is very common in construction and other high-risk environments as a means of increasing conspicuity and reducing the rate of “fail-to-see” type of accidents. HVSA are widely used in construction, roadworks, airport operations, emergency response, courier services, and other sectors.

The typical safety colors are orange and lime-yellow. However, those colors are not always suitable. For example, in an environment where everything is red or yellow, those colors have the opposite effect. People are camouflaged. Below pictures show such an example.

Example of ppe color selection
The effect of selecting a more conspicuous safety color

Project Objective

The OptiColor project attempts to formulate a generally applicable methodology for determining the optimal safety color for a specific environment. By the end of the project, the following shall be released:

  1. A color combination table shall be developed. Currently, lime-yellow and orange are the predominant safety colors. We will increase the colors to a minimum of eight safety colors. Based on the eight safety colors an 8×16 object vs background combination table will be developed. The combination on the table shall represent optimal color combinations with regards to consciousness.
  2. A software application shall be developed for analyzing pictures from a specific work environment and automatically proposing the most conspicuous safety color.
  3. Concept Validation. A assess and possibly proof the effectiveness of the proposed safety color combinations and that of the automatic assignment by the software application.

Project Sponsors

This is a 6-month project proposed by S-Innovations Ltd. The Project is co-funded by S-Innovations Ltd (40 %) and Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (60 %) under Restart 2016-2020 Portfolio. Program Call: Proof of Concept. Funding of Restart 2016-2020 is provided by the European Union and the Republic of Cyprus.

Cyprus Research and Innovation Promotion Foundation - European Union Logo
Cyprus Research and Innovation Promotion Foundation - European structural Funds      

Project Partners

S-Innovations Ltd is in partnership with RISE (The Research Centre on Interactive Media Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies). The partnership includes: (1) subcontracting of services for the Work Packages  WP5 (2) Non-charged (free) Expert Consulting.

 RISE Cyprus - The Research Centre on Interactive Media Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies 

Work Packages

The project duration is 6 months. We divided the project into five work packages. Namely:

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