Flip Animated Road Warning Sign

Studies of visual effects of road signs have shown that having dynamic imagery, and even better, animation, helps improve road signs as it increases a viewer’s attentiveness. However, currently existing animated imagery signs, which are usually digital billboards, have drawbacks including distraction caused by bright LED lights, large energy consumption, and expensiveness. To overcome the problems, this project proposes creating a Flip Animated Road Sign, a new road sign without the use of a digital display that uses a mechanism of an automatically running mechanical flip book to produce animated imagery. The project proposes that features of animated visuals through flip animation can lead to perceived movement and prepare the observer for action. The research is operationalized within the context of warning sign icons and show how animated iconography can affect human behavioral response. Experiments measuring attention, quickness of response to, and perceived movement and risk of animated warning sign icons using driving simulations and surveys showed that there was no statistical difference between the data sets of flip animated warning signs and the data sets of regular warning signs. However, none of the flip animation or designed images were shown to make the meaning of the sign too confusing to understand.