Study 5 · Pick-up map
Where do you pick up a target late?
A target is seen some tenths of a second after it appears, and where it appears relative to where you are looking decides how late. This maps that: you hold a look point above a cluttered horizon; a small target appears at one of five places across and one of three heights, in the clutter, just above it, or in clear sky, and rises; you press the instant you see it. The map of your latency by side and height says which part of the field you serve late, and what your look point might do about it.
A first map about three minutes in, the full map in about six. No account needed; a laptop or desktop with a keyboard, a plastic card the size of a driving licence to calibrate the screen, and ideally a display of 60 Hz or better (a slower one is not refused; its rate is recorded with the result). The viewing distance is measured, not just asked for, because every angle here depends on it.
On a phone or tablet? This test needs a laptop or desktop with a keyboard and a plastic card. Send yourself the link and come back on one.
Evidence label: measured. It reports what your eyes did today at a screen; the look-point suggestion is something to try with a coach, not an instruction, and nothing here claims to improve scores. Independent research by Dr. Satwant Kumar, under the rules.
- What it measures: detection latency from the frame the target first appears to your key press, by position (five across, three heights), with clutter that looks like a real horizon; the side asymmetry, the height effect and how latency grows with eccentricity; misses, anticipations and false alarms.
- What it does not: your gun, your mount or your scores. It measures the eyes at a screen with the head still, which is not the field; whether a late side here predicts a late side on the ground is what the pooled data, and later field validation against scores, will test.
- The suggestion: if one side or height is slower by a margin that matters, the map suggests moving your look point a couple of degrees toward it, with the hold point keeping its usual relation. A starting point for a session with a coach.
- The gate: a repeat session showing the map is repeatable before any individual claim is made from it, and field validation against scores before the look-point suggestion is called anything more than a suggestion.
- What is kept: only if you choose to contribute: the trials, the calibration (including whether the distance was verified), and an optional questionnaire (age band, discipline, handedness, gun shoulder, which eye you believe dominant). Linked to your account by an internal id if you are signed in; anonymous otherwise. No name or email, ever.