The problem of automation: Inappropriate feedback and interaction, not overautomation

As automation increasingly takes its place in industry, especially high-risk industry, it is often blamed for causing harm and increasing the chance of human error when failures occur. It is proposed that the problem is not the presence of automation, but rather its inappropriate design. The problem is that the operations are performed appropriately under normal conditions, but there is inadequate feedback and interaction with the humans who must control the overall conduct of the task. When the situations exceed the capabilities of the automatic equipment, then the inadequate feedback leads to difficulties for the human controllers. The problem is that the automation is at an intermediate level of intelligence, powerful enough to take over control that which used to be done by people, but not powerful enough to handle all abnormalities. Moreover, its level of intelligence is insufficient to provide the continual, appropriate feedback that occurs naturally among human operators. To solve this problem, the automation should either be made less intelligent or more so, but the current level is quite inappropriate. The overall message is that it is possible to reduce error through appropriate design considerations

The Design of Future Things: Cautious Cars:

I will discuss the increasing intrusion of intelligent devices into the automobile with both expected benefits and unexpected dangers. The aviation industry knows a lot about the dangers of overautomation. The Human Factors and Control industry has long studied problems of operator control of automated equipment, including supervisory control. The issues here, however, are different: most studies of automation and intelligent devices look at industrial settings, with well-trained operators who do the same operations over and over again. In the automobile, we have ill-trained operators, with little understanding (and little interest in gaining understanding), who may have to react in seconds. Full automation, along with full autonomy probably is inevitable, and it will provide significant safety benefits. But partial autonomy, partial automation can be confusing, frustrating and dangerous. For these in-between states, I propose that we do not allow partial solutions, but rather use the technology to augment our abilities in a symbiotic fashion. I propose an approach I call “natural interaction,” where people and machines interact and communicate in ways that are natural, use environmental cues, and provide continual awareness of the other’s activities without annoyance. This requires development of a science of natural interaction, using appropriate visual, haptic, and auditory fields that map gracefully between machine and environmental states and human perception

Language Evolution and Human-Computer Interaction

Many of the issues that confront designers of interactive computer systems also appear in natural language evolution. Natural languages and human-computer interfaces share as their primary mission the support of extended ''dialogues'' between responsive entities. Because in each case one participant is a human being, some of the pressures operating on natural languages, causing them to evolve in order to better support such dialogue, also operate on human-computer ''languages'' or interfaces. This does not necessarily push interfaces in the direction of natural language - since one entity in this dialogue is not a human, this is not to be expected. Nonetheless, by discerning where the pressures that guide natural language evolution also appear in human-computer interaction, we can contribute to the design of computer systems and obtain a new perspective on natural languages

Ronald Slowinski

This exhibition is the result of a visit to the studio of Ron Slowinski in 1981. Such a visit is the surest test of one\u27s reaction to the artist\u27s work seen on previous occasions only in isolated examples. Such partial contacts are frequently inconclusive, but in the instance of Slowinski the impression made was sufficient to create an appetite for more. The several hours spent looking at the accumulated work of four or five years was exciting to say the least and impressive to the degree that I came away from the experience convinced that here was an artist who could and should be seen in the demanding context of a large exhibition. Fortunately I made this visit in the company of Doriald Doe whose enthusiasm for what we had seen matched my own and, fortunately as well, he is eminently qualified to enter into the critical dialogue with the artist which is the necessary context for the organization of such an exhibition. The result is, in every respect, the confirmation of our original impression. Here is an artist whose commitment to the business of art is total, an artist whose activity in our midst establishes a qualitative standard of a high order. The exhibition in itself represents the Sheldon Gallery\u27s commitment to the critical appraisal and endorsement of the best work being done in our region, which is part of the best from anywhere

CHAPTER 11 PROACTIVE OR RISK MANAGEMENT CASES 11.1 DROUGHT IN THE U.S. GREAT PLAINS

There is good evidence that droughts have been a recurrent feature of the climate of the Great Plains for as far back. at least. as man has inhabited the region. Much of the evidence is based on chronologies of tree rings. Specimens of red cedar and western yellow pine found in western Nebraska were studied by Weakly (1965). In the time span extending back to 1220 A.D, he found many short periods of drought. Droughts frequently lasted for more than five years. and one such period lasted 38 years. Will (1946) found a similar pattern in central North Dakota extending back to 1539 A.D. More recently. Stockton. Mitchell and Meko (1981) have prepared time series of drought indices based on tree rings since 1700 A.D. for several Great Plains sites

Ronald Slowinski

This exhibition is the result of a visit to the studio of Ron Slowinski in 1981. Such a visit is the surest test of one\u27s reaction to the artist\u27s work seen on previous occasions only in isolated examples. Such partial contacts are frequently inconclusive, but in the instance of Slowinski the impression made was sufficient to create an appetite for more. The several hours spent looking at the accumulated work of four or five years was exciting to say the least and impressive to the degree that I came away from the experience convinced that here was an artist who could and should be seen in the demanding context of a large exhibition. Fortunately I made this visit in the company of Doriald Doe whose enthusiasm for what we had seen matched my own and, fortunately as well, he is eminently qualified to enter into the critical dialogue with the artist which is the necessary context for the organization of such an exhibition. The result is, in every respect, the confirmation of our original impression. Here is an artist whose commitment to the business of art is total, an artist whose activity in our midst establishes a qualitative standard of a high order. The exhibition in itself represents the Sheldon Gallery\u27s commitment to the critical appraisal and endorsement of the best work being done in our region, which is part of the best from anywhere

Stability and Control Characteristics at Subsonic Speeds of a Flat-Top Arrowhead Wing-Body Combination

A wind-tunnel investigation was made to determine the longitudinal- and lateral-stability derivatives of a flat-top wing-body configuration at Mach numbers from 0.22 to 0.90 and Reynolds numbers of 3.5 and 17 million. The wing had a leading-edge sweepback of 78.9 deg and a cathedral of 45 deg on the outer panels. The tests included the determination of the effectiveness of elevon and rudder controls and also an investigation of ground effects. The model was tested at angles of attack up to 28 deg and angles of sideslip up to 18 deg. The dynamic response of this configuration has been determined from the wind-tunnel data for a simulated airplane having a wing loading of 17.7 pounds per square foot. The longitudinal data show a forward shift in aerodynamic center of 10 percent of the mean aerodynamic chord as the lift coefficient is increased above 0.1. Although flown in the lift range of decreasing stability, the simulated airplane did not encounter pitch-up in maneuvers initiated from steady level flight with zero static margin unless a load factor of 2.2 was exceeded. This maneuver margin was provided by a large value of pitching moment due to pitching velocity. The number of cycles to damp the Dutch roll mode to half amplitude, the time constants of the roll subsidence and spiral divergence modes, and control effectiveness in roll are computed. The lateral stability is shown to be positive but is marginal in meeting the military specifications for today's aircraft. An analog computer study has been made in five degrees of freedom (constant velocity) which illustrates that the handling characteristics are satisfactory. Several programed rolling maneuvers and coordinated turns also illustrate the handling qualities of the airplane

Combat and Warfare in the Early Paleolithic and Medically Unexplained Musculo-Facial Pain in the 21st Century War Veterns and Active-Duty Military Personnel

In a series of recent articles, we suggest that family dentists, military dentists and psychiatrists with expertise in posttraumatic stress disorder (especially in the Veterans Health Administration) are likely to see an increased number of patients with symptomatic jaw-clenching and early stages of tooth- grinding (Bracha et al., 2005). Returning warfighters and other returnees from military deployment may be especially at risk for high rates of clenching- induced masticatory muscle disorders at early stages of incisor grinding. The literature we have recently reviewed strongly supports the conclusion that clenching and grinding may primarily be a manifestation of experiencing extreme fear or severe chronic distress (respectively). We have recently reviewed the clinical and paleoanthropological literature and have noted that ancestral warfare and ancestral combat, in the early Paleolithic Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA) may be a neglected factor explaining the conservation of the archaic trait of bite-muscle strengthening. We have hypothesized that among ancestral warriors, jaw clenching may have rapidly strengthened the two primary muscles involved in biting, the masseter muscles and the much larger temporalis muscles. The strengthening of these muscles may have served the purpose of enabling a stronger, deeper, and therefore more lethal, defensive bite for early Paleolithic humans. The neuroevolutionary perspective presented here may be novel to many dentists. However, it may be useful in patient education and in preventing progression from jaw-clenching to chronic facial pain

Investigating the Relationship Between Spatial Skills and Computer Science

The relationship between spatial skills training and computer science learning is unclear. Reported experiments provide tantalising, though not convincing, evidence that training a programming student's spatial skills may accelerate the development of their programming skills. Given the well-documented challenge of learning to program, such acceleration would be welcomed. Despite the experimental results, no attempt has been made to develop a model of how a linkage between spatial skills and computer science ability might operate, hampering the development of a sound research programme to investigate the issue further. This paper surveys the literature on spatial skills and investigates the various underlying cognitive skills involved. It poses a theoretical model for the relationship between computer science ability and spatial skills, exploring ways in which the cognitive processes involved in each overlap, and hence may influence one another. An experiment shows that spatial skills typically increase as the level of academic achievement in computer science increases. Overall, this work provides a substantial foundation for, and encouragement to develop, a major research programme investigating precisely how spatial skills training influences computer science learning, and hence whether computer science education could be significantly improved