Developing a library of display effects on pilot performance: Methods, meta-analyses, and performance estimates

The design of NextGen and current-day cockpit displays are critical for efficient pilot performance and situation awareness on the flight deck. Before deployment of a design into the cockpit the costs and benefits that a display design imposes on performance and situation awareness should be considered. In this thesis, a design tool was developed to support the design of NextGen displays for situation awareness and performance. This design tool is a library of pilot performance estimates. Through literature reviews and meta-analyses of empirical data, the library was developed to provide display designers 1) qualitative distinctions of display properties that either support or limit full situation awareness, and 2) quantitative performance time estimates until situation awareness as a function of various display formats. A systematic method was also developed for future augmentation of the library

Effects of Visual Interaction Methods on Simulated Unmanned Aircraft Operator Situational Awareness

The limited field of view of static egocentric visual displays employed in unmanned aircraft controls introduces the soda straw effect on operators, which significantly affects their ability to capture and maintain situational awareness by not depicting peripheral visual data. The problem with insufficient operator situational awareness is the resulting increased potential for error and oversight during operation of unmanned aircraft, leading to accidents and mishaps costing United States taxpayers between $4 million to$54 million per year. The purpose of this quantitative experimental completely randomized design study was to examine and compare use of dynamic eyepoint to static visual interaction in a simulated stationary egocentric environment to determine which, if any, resulted in higher situational awareness. The theoretical framework for the study established the premise that the amount of visual information available could affect the situational awareness of an operator and that increasing visual information through dynamic eyepoint manipulation may result in higher situational awareness than static visualization. Four experimental dynamic visual interaction methods were examined (analog joystick, head tracker, uninterrupted hat/point of view switch, and incremental hat/point of view switch) and compared to a single static method (the control treatment). The five methods were used in experimental testing with 150 participants to determine if the use of a dynamic eyepoint significantly increased the situational awareness of a user within a stationary egocentric environment, indicating that employing dynamic control would reduce the occurrence or consequences of the soda straw effect. The primary difference between the four dynamic visual interaction methods was their unique manipulation approaches to control the pitch and yaw of the simulated eyepoint. The identification of dynamic visual interaction increasing user SA may lead to the further refinement of human-machine-interface (HMI), teleoperation, and unmanned aircraft control principles, with the pursuit and performance of related research

The Impact of Changing the Size of Aircraft Radar Displays on Visual Search in the Cockpit

Advances in sensor technology have enabled our fighter aircraft to find, fix, track, target, engage (F2T2E) at greater distances, providing the operator with more data within the battlefield. Modern aircraft are designed with larger displays while our legacy aircraft are being retrofitted with larger cockpit displays to enable display of the increased data. While this modification has been shown to enable improvements in human performance of many cockpit tasks, this effect is often not measured nor fully understood at a more generalizable level. This research outlines an approach to comparing human performance across two display sizes in future F-16 cockpits. The results show that increases in display size can increase search times under some circumstances even when the displays include a large number of tracks, actually reducing human performance

The Effects Of Screen Size On Performance Of A Modified Code Substitution Task

The smallest display while indistinguishable from the larger three displays in the 3000 ms condition has significant accuracy diminution in the 700 ms and 300 ms conditions when compared to the three larger displays. Understanding the effects of the visual display size of a task on human performance has long been a goal of research in the United States Military. The present work is a series of three studies which focus on distinguishing which specific aspects of display size each affect performance response capacity. The three sequential studies represented here manipulated viewing conditions and task type. These studies were derived from a code substitution cognitive battery using four display sizes and three viewing conditions. The first viewing condition is controlled distance to the display. The second viewing condition allowed the participants to choose their own viewing distance. Free movement, the second viewing condition, provided the data for the third viewing condition where the participant was held to a constant visual angle and changing distance. In summary the three sequential experiments are free movement to and from the display, controlled distance to the display, and controlled visual angle while changing display distance. The four display sizes were in part selected in association with SME\u27s from UCF and the United States Army (PDA--320x280, Tablet--800x600, Small - LCD 1280x1024, Large LCD--1600x1200). These four displays are representative of the four display sizes widely used by our armed forces. Three workload levels were manipulated by restricting the viewing time to 300ms on target at the shortest interval through 700ms on target, to finally 3000ms on target. The 3000ms represents the standard amount of time used in a code substitution task, while 700ms and 300ms are present as a result of the pilot studies and thus representing higher workloads. Results indicate all displays sizes suffered performance diminution in the 700 ms and 300 ms condition. The three largest displays had indistinguishable performance results