Assessing the effectiveness of multi-touch interfaces for DP operation

Navigating a vessel using dynamic positioning (DP) systems close to offshore installations is a challenge. The operator's only possibility of manipulating the system is through its interface, which can be categorized as the physical appearance of the equipment and the visualization of the system. Are there possibilities of interaction between the operator and the system that can reduce strain and cognitive load during DP operations? Can parts of the system (e.g. displays) be physically brought closer to the user to enhance the feeling of control when operating the system? Can these changes make DP operations more efficient and safe? These questions inspired this research project, which investigates the use of multi-touch and hand gestures known from consumer products to directly manipulate the visualization of a vessel in the 3D scene of a DP system. Usability methodologies and evaluation techniques that are widely used in consumer market research were used to investigate how these interaction techniques, which are new to the maritime domain, could make interaction with the DP system more efficient and transparent both during standard and safety-critical operations. After investigating which gestures felt natural to use by running user tests with a paper prototype, the gestures were implemented into a Rolls-Royce DP system and tested in a static environment. The results showed that the test participants performed significantly faster using direct gesture manipulation compared to using traditional button/menu interaction. To support the results from these tests, further tests were carried out. The purpose is to investigate how gestures are performed in a moving environment, using a motion platform to simulate rough sea conditions. The key results and lessons learned from a collection of four user experiments, together with a discussion of the choice of evaluation techniques will be discussed in this paper

The use of non-intrusive user logging to capture engineering rationale, knowledge and intent during the product life cycle

Within the context of Life Cycle Engineering it is important that structured engineering information and knowledge are captured at all phases of the product life cycle for future reference. This is especially the case for long life cycle projects which see a large number of engineering decisions made at the early to mid-stages of a product's life cycle that are needed to inform engineering decisions later on in the process. A key aspect of technology management will be the capturing of knowledge through out the product life cycle. Numerous attempts have been made to apply knowledge capture techniques to formalise engineering decision rationale and processes; however, these tend to be associated with substantial overheads on the engineer and the company through cognitive process interruptions and additional costs/time. Indeed, when life cycle deadlines come closer these capturing techniques are abandoned due the need to produce a final solution. This paper describes work carried out for non-intrusively capturing and formalising product life cycle knowledge by demonstrating the automated capture of engineering processes/rationale using user logging via an immersive virtual reality system for cable harness design and assembly planning. Associated post-experimental analyses are described which demonstrate the formalisation of structured design processes and decision representations in the form of IDEF diagrams and structured engineering change information. Potential future research directions involving more thorough logging of users are also outlined