Perception of Ghosting in LED Lighting: Modeling the visibility of Ghosting (or Phantom Array Effect)

Have you ever noticed a strange visual effect when driving behind a vehicle with LED-based (light-emitting diode) rear lights at night? The rear lights of the vehicles appear as a trail of lights when you make eye movements across them while navigating the road. Or, have you noticed decorative lighting that "repeats" itself when wandering and looking around in the city? This phenomenon, known as the phantom array effect (or ghosting), is defined by CIE (International Commission on Illumination) as "the change in perceived shape or spatial layout of objects, induced by a light stimulus whose luminance or spectral distribution fluctuates with time, for a non-static observer in a static environment." The term "non-static" here means that the observer moves their eyes by making fast eye movements (i.e., saccades). The phantom array effect results from making saccades over a temporally modulated light source, and it is most easily observed in low-light situations.