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From: dmark@joey.cs.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: What to know & universal icons
Message-ID: <9059@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 24 Aug 89 16:01:01 GMT
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In article <19238@mimsy.UUCP> don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins) writes:
>
>Here are my entries in the universal icon contest. I have my doubts
>that they are really universal, but I have not had the chance to test
>them out on any genuine space aliens yet to be sure.
>
>Arrows as icons for directions:
>
>Icon 0, left:
>Icon 1, right:
>Icon 2, up or forward:
>Icon 3, down or back:
  
  [I deleted Don's iconic representations of these to save space, and because
   our Pnews won't post items that have fewer new lines than extracted lines!]

>Icon 0 and Icon 1 seem less ambiguous to me than Icon 2 and Icon 3, which 
>could each mean two different directions.
>
>So what *is* is about arrows that make them seem to indicate
>direction? (Or am I missing the point?) What other ideas could arrows
>be confused with?  It probably has more to do with society than with
>the shape of arrow...  Maybe the fact that we live in a 3-dimensional
>society has something to do with the ambiguity of icons 2 and 3?

  I agree that these are good candidates for at least 'quasi-universal'
  status.  But, there are cross-cultural difference in the forward-back
  interpretations of 2 and 3.  Overhead signs in train stations and airports
  in France code things as down==ahead, and up==backward.  My interpretation
  is that we are "supposed" to think of the arrows being rotated into the
  plane of the CEILING.  ("up==ahead" / "down==backward" assumes that we
  are mapping onto the plane of the ground or floor, I think.)  Also, I seem
  to recall signs in the new Eastern Airlines terminal at Miami Airport using 
  the "French convention".

  So, arrows for up-down-left-right may be nearly universal, but the
  mappings between the up-down and forward-back axes may not be.  What other
  places and peoples, besides the French, use the "down==ahead"
  convention on overhead signs?

  By the way, the short answer on why left-right is distinct, but up-down
  and forward-back get confounded is that our two eyes are arranged side-
  by-side (ie., perpendicular to gravity).  And that seems to be almost
  a biological universal.  I can think of no creature with 2 eyes for
  binocular vision that has them arranged one above the other.  If this
  is generally so, what is the selective advantage of having the plane of 
  binocular vision perpendicular to the direction of gravity??

  David Mark
  dmark@cs.buffalo.edu