The Research Of Visual Comfort For Passenger Train’s Inner Color

With the concept of rail passenger transportation development changes from producer-oriented to consumer-oriented, the train design is undergoing the process of shifting from "meeting a simple displacement function" to "paying attention to the comfort level of the hardware" and "considering passengers’ experiences and feelings". Improving the environmental comfort of the train is an effective means to enhance the competitiveness of rail passenger transportation, and the attractiveness of charming colors of the interior environment of the train is closely related to inner ambience and passenger comfort. In the expression of the interior ambience, colors play a critical role, and directly affect psychological feelings of the audience and the passenger. The use of moderate colors can reduce travelers’ visual fatigue and make the limited interior space seem more spacious and distinct.At present, due to the competition pressure of passenger transportation, train manufacturers and designers in Japan, Germany, France and other countries, put more and more emphasis on factors, like the psychological state when using, the aesthetic preferences, and emotional experiences and other psychological needs of travelers, for the purpose of creating more glamorous means of transportation. The targeted user preferences and evaluation methods have also gradually been integrated in the interior design of the train."Pleasure" becomes an important index in the interior environmental design, with emotional and unique design style themes widely recognized. However, in China’s interior environment design of the train, colors are often neglected, and problems exist universally, such as the interior color is random, monotonous and lacks of geographical and cultural features, the functions of the interior color, the relations between interior colors and spatial perception, and the form and the application methods of train interior color are not clear, and systematic theories, research methodological frameworks, clear guidance and specifications for the interior color environment are insufficient.Therefore, on the basis of a lot of research on domestic and overseas theoretical methods and practical experiences, combining with China’s conditions, this paper starts its research from the visual perception characteristics of the interior color environment, divides its study into two levels:functionality and emotion, and puts the color space perception and style of cognition as the key issues,in order to systematically consider the influence of colors on the passenger’s perceptions, emotions, behaviors and etc. Through the interior color environment building, eye movement analysis, chroma selection, sensory evaluation and other experimental methods, it has studied the interior color perception characteristics of the train environmental space, the comfort-related patterns of color, the selected color range, and cognitive characteristics of color style. The main contents of this paper are as following:1. The perceptive features of color environment:Through studying the needs and functions of interior environment colors, and the features of visual movements, it has found that visual perception characteristics of the train interior is not affected by warm or cold color tendency; the seat colors in the interior environment play a major role. Shades of brightness and area contrast have rather great impact on the eye movements; and a small area of graphics or patterns can improve the interior environment attraction.2. The spatial perceptions of colors:Through comparative experiments and selection experiments, the paper studies the relations between color configuration and spatial perceptions. By using virtual performances in experiments, aiming at color traits of different facilities, controlling variables, analyzing the selection rules and range of chroma values of side walls, end walls, and seat color attributes, the research has found that:(1) Environmental spatial perception is correlate with the area ratio of the bright side and the tendency of seat color’s being red or green. If the ratio is bigger, the interior space feels wider, and has not obvious relations with the brightness of the only surface, and the space with seats in red or other warm colors feels expansive while seats in blue and green and other cold colors make the space feel smaller.(2) There is certain correlation between the brightness of the side wall and the brightness of the seat. When the seat is2.5<V<9, the side wall is7.5<V<9; when the seat is2.5<V<6, the side wall is Vseat+△V1(2<△V1<3);when V>6, the side wall is Vseat-△V2(1<△V2<2).(3)There is certain correlation between the hue selection of the end wall and the brightness and hue of the seat, which presents in two aspects:①when the side wall color is high bright and slant warm neutral color, the seat turns yellowish or bluish according to its cold or warm hue.②regardless of the change of seat colors,the side wall color is neutral with a little warmer medium and low brightness.(4) As to the selection of seat saturation, the subject generally prefers the color with low saturation.In addition, their saturation preferences, ranging from bright to dim, present like the following order:blue> purple> yellow> red>green.(5)The brightness contrast of the seat fabric pattern has rather great impact on the sense of coordination and spatial perception, while factors like the scale and density of the pattern has little influence.3.The style cognition of color environment:(1)On the basis of the description of the interior design style development and features, and the semantic description and selection of the designer and user groups, the research has established its description language set of the interior color style.(2) Though the research on the cognitive styles of interior color environment, main factors which have impact on interior color environment cognition are found:space activity; function; identifiable characteristics of the eastern or western styles.(3) Color characteristics which affect style cognition are as follows:a. the active sense of the environment is positively related to the overall brightness and chroma. The seat in warm color possesses more active sense than the one in cold; b. the functional expression of the space is positively related to the intensity of overall brightness contrast and chroma contrast. The seat in cold colors, instead in warm, provides more functional feelings of seating; c. The recognition of the eastern or western styles is mainly presented through color icons and textures. Non-eastern traditional color modes will lead to low identity, while familiar patterns bring the strong sense of cultural recognition.(4) Through analyzing the cognitive association between the interior color characteristics and recognition, the interior color Cognitive Space is built, which reflects the environmental hues ranging from deep to clear, and the distribution rules of the color culture from traditional to modern. It is also found that the interior color cognitive style is more susceptible to the influence of the seat hue value and saturation.The research results of this paper provide data reference and methods for the train interior color environment design, and lays theoretical and practicable foundations for further research work.