Combining Alternatives in the Multimedia Presentation of Decision Support Information for Real-Time Control

Multimedia technology is emerging as a key element in the area of Decision Support Systems (DSS) since well-designed multimedia presentations help the human decision maker to assimilate relevant information more easily. The use of multiple media, however, increases the complexity of the presentation design task. Especially when complex information structures have to be presented under time pressure `ad hoc ' solutions to presentation generation are getting more and more impractical, if not impossible to use. In this paper we report on our approach to enhance a DSS for real-time traffic management with an advanced component for the automated generation of multimedia presentations. A common problem in this application class is the presentation of alternatives such as different explanations or predictions for a current traffic situation, or different sequences of control actions which may be initiated to resolve a problem. We describe a novel approach to provide aggregated information presentations rather than presenting alternatives just one after the other

Inference and information resources: A design case study

Abstract. Much attention has been paid in HCI to techniques for designing systems that conform to the tasks users wish to carry out. It is often the case that such approaches rely on identifying the combinations of commands a user will be expected to issue and information thay will need to access,and designing an interface with appropriate temporal behaviour. Many fields of activity, however, are highly information intensive, and the way in which a human-machine cognitive system makes inferences and reasons and makes decisions is far more important that the way it carries out actions. In this paper, therefore, we explore an approach to design that places much more emphasis on the form and structure of a display than it’s temporal properties, and the role it plays in cognitive activity.

Keeping the driver in the loop: the ‘other’ ethics of automation

Automated vehicles are expected to revolutionise everyday travel withanticipated benefits of improved road safety, comfort and mobility. However,they also raise complex ethical challenges. Ethical debates have primarily centred around moral judgements that must be made by autonomous vehicles in safetycritical situations, with proposed solutions typically based on deontological principles or consequentialism. However, ethics should also be acknowledged in the design, development and deployment of partially-automated systems that invariably rely upon the human driver to monitor and intervene when required, even though they may be ill-prepared to do so. In this literature review, we explore the lesser-discussed ethics associated with the role of, and expectations placed upon, the human driver in partially-automated vehicles, discussing factors such as the marketing and deployment of these vehicles, and the impact upon the human driver’s development of trust and complacency in automated functionality, concluding that the human driver must be kept ‘in the loop’ at all times