33 research outputs found

    A Human Factors Analysis of Work in Food Pantries: A Case Study of Two Local Pantries

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    A Human Factors Analysis of Work in Food Pantries: A Case Study of Two Local Pantries Nicholas A. Higgins, B.S., Danielle S. Vanderhill, Keshia D. Pierre, Jeremy DaCruz, Nicholas W. Fraulini & Andrew B. Talone University of Central Florida ABSTRACT The goal of the present study was to investigate the work environment and main work processes in two small food pantries from a human factors perspective. Current research on enhancing food pantries in general is very limited, especially with a focus on human factors improvements. This study specifically aimed to understand and evaluate food pantry design (i.e., the environment and workflow), potential physical demands on worker performance (e.g., heavy lifting), and cognitive components of human-machine interaction for main tasks (e.g., perceptual-motor skills, disuse or misuse of the equipment, mental workload, decision-making, and error-recovery strategies). Findings were then used to identify improvements for current procedures and optimize the work environment and worker performance (i.e., increased comfort and efficiency) for both pantries through the application of human factors principles. The study was conducted over the course of six months. Across both locations, 37 workers were observed in total (16 volunteers and 1 supervisor, 18 student volunteers and 2 supervisors; respectively). Two investigators for each location observed daily tasks and procedures within the pantry and conducted interviews with the pantry supervisors using techniques of ethnography (c.f., Wimmer & Dominick, 2006) and task analysis (c.f., Mayhew, 1999). Interviews addressed which tasks were the most or least common, the easiest or most difficult to perform, any issues workers had in general or specifically with the equipment, and clarification of observation notes. Then a more in-depth analysis was conducted on what were determined to be the main tasks for each pantry (i.e., obtaining pantry items, organizing pantry items, distributing pantry items to clients). Suggestions for enhancing the human-machine interaction (e.g., enhancing the interface used for inputting volunteer and food information) and work environment (e.g., reducing clutter) are provided. It should be noted that sustainable improvement may be difficult to implement in small food pantries given the often transitional nature of the workers. Additional investigations should be implemented to further support small non-profit organizations such as these where there is a great need. Contact Information Nicholas A. Higgins 3609 Stonefield Drive Orlando, FL, 32826 Phone: 850-524-1875 Email: [email protected] University Affiliation: University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Danielle S. Vanderhill Department of Psychology 4000 Central Florida Blvd Orlando, FL, 32816 Phone: 407-371-7077 Email: [email protected] University Affiliation: University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Keshia D. Pierre Department of Psychology 4000 Central Florida Blvd Orlando, FL, 32816 Phone: 407-361-8035 Email: [email protected] University Affiliation: University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Jeremy DaCruz Department of Psychology 4000 Central Florida Blvd Orlando, FL, 32816 Phone: 434-213-0345 Email: [email protected] University Affiliation: University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Nicholas W. Fraulini Department of Psychology 4000 Central Florida Blvd Orlando, FL, 32816 Phone: 617-968-0496 Email: [email protected] University Affiliation: University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Andrew B. Talone Department of Psychology 4000 Central Florida Blvd Orlando, FL, 32816 Phone: 407-362-8492 Email: [email protected] University Affiliation: University of Central Florida, Orlando, F

    Evaluating Startle, Surprise, and Distraction: an Analysis of Aircraft Incident and Accident Reports

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    Over the years, startle, surprise, and distraction have been frequently cited as potentially having negative effects on aircraft flightcrew performance. This paper aims to build upon and extend our prior research (Rivera, Talone, Boesser, Jentsch, & Yeh, 2014) in which we found evidence that (a) startle may be less problematic to flight deck performance than surprise, and (b) negative flight deck performance following startle is most likely due to concurrent distraction or surprise. The current research examined the theoretical foundations underlying these concepts and analyzed two accident/incident databases to identify potential trends and assess the prevalence of startle, surprise, and distraction on the flight deck. Results indicated that across the entire 20-year period, distraction was the most prevalent, followed by surprise and startle

    Usability Of Pay-As-You-Go Cell Phones: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

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    The goal of the current study was to assess the usability of pay-as-you-go cell phones across specific cultures-one cell phone model from Honduras and one model from the United States. Bilingual participants completed three basic tasks with both cell phones while performing the think-aloud protocol and then completed surveys evaluating their user experience. Findings revealed that participants had more difficulty and were less satisfied when using the Honduran phone to complete the tasks. Universal and cross-cultural usability heuristics are used to evaluate performance issues with the phones and provide basic design recommendations to optimize user performance with the cell phones across the two cultures

    Experimental determination of shift-less aberration bases for sensorless adaptive optics in nonlinear microscopy

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    Adaptive optics can improve the performance of optical systems and devices by correcting phase aberrations. While in most applications wavefront sensing is employed to drive the adaptive optics correction, some microscopy methods may require sensorless optimization of the wavefront. In these cases, the correction is performed by describing the aberration as a linear combination of a base of influence functions, optimizing an image quality metric as a function of the coefficients. The influence functions base is generally chosen to either efficiently represent the adaptive device used or to describe generic wavefronts in an orthogonal fashion. A rarely discussed problem is that most correction bases have elements which introduce, together with a correction of the aberration, a shift of the imaging field of view in three dimensions. While simple methods to solve the problem are available for linear microscopy methods, nonlinear microscopy techniques such as multiphoton or second harmonic generation microscopy require non-trivial base determination. In this paper, we discuss the problem, and we present a method for calibrating a shift-less base on a spatial light modulator for two-photon microscopy

    Enhancing Human-Computer Interaction And User Experience Education Through A Hybrid Approach To Experiential Learning

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    This paper introduces the concept and implementation of a hybrid experiential learning approach to building a User Experience (UX) Lab at a large public university (the University of Central Florida). The UX Lab @ UCF (UX Lab) is intended to bridge the gap between traditional project-based courses and full-time industry internships to provide Information Technology (IT) undergraduates (and students from other disciplines and levels) with the opportunity to apply their Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) knowledge and hone their UX skills by working in partnership with local companies. Specifically, students work as part-time, paid UX consultants for local companies while receiving guidance, mentoring, and feedback from a faculty mentor and graduate student with expertise in HCI and UX. Thus, the UX Lab contributes to IT pedagogy by providing students with a unique opportunity to apply what they\u27ve learned in their HCI coursework to real products in development by actual companies. Our approach complements other pedagogical approaches, such as industry-sponsored project-based courses and capstone courses. In this paper, we describe the conceptual model upon which the UX Lab was built, and the success of the first proof-of-concept project that was recently completed in May 2017

    An Evaluation Of Human Mental Models Of Tactical Robot Movement

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    In this paper, we describe an ongoing exploratory study investigating human mental models of tactical robot movement under different combinations of mission commands, constraints, and environmental features. In particular, we are assessing the relationship between participants\u27 mental models of robot form and their expectations for robot movement. The results of this study will inform the design of future experimentation with a soldier population and the design of tactical robot movement behaviors. Due to data collection being in its early stages, findings will be presented at the 2015 HFES Annual Meeting

    Evaluation And Benefits Of Head-Mounted Display Systems For Hri Research

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    The intent of this evaluation is to describe the unique benefits that may be provided to human robot interaction (HRI) researchers by the capabilities of commercially available binocular head-mounted displays (HMDs) and associated handheld controllers. Three popular HMDs (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Google Daydream) were compared across eight factors: cost, head tracking fidelity, visual resolution, user mobility, hand tracking fidelity, number of input modes, adaptability of input, and provided tracking space. Each of these elements was considered in the context of their relevance to the field of HRI, and potential importance for conducting research in immersive virtual reality (IVR). A Pugh chart was developed to succinctly compare the pros and cons of each headset alongside a description of IVR tasks for HRI military research as well as examples taken from work currently being conducted in our lab

    Impact of spectral resolution of in situ ocean color radiometric data in satellite matchups analyses

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    The spectral resolution requirements for in situ remote sensing reflectance Rrs measurements aiming at supporting satellite ocean color validation and System Vicarious Calibration (SVC) were investigated. The study, conducted using sample hyperspectral Rrs from different water types, focused on the visible spectral bands of the Ocean Land Color Imager (OLCI) and of the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite sensors. Allowing for a ±0.5% maximum difference between in situ and satellite derived Rrs solely due to the spectral band characteristics of the in situ radiometer, a spectral resolution of 1 nm for SVC of PACE is needed in oligotrophic waters. Requirements decrease to 3 nm for SVC of OLCI. In the case of validation activities, which exhibit less stringent uncertainty requirements with respect to SVC, a maximum difference of ±1% between in situ and satellite derived data indicates the need for a spectral resolution of 3 nm for both OLCI and PACE in oligotrophic waters. Conversely, spectral resolutions of 6 nm for PACE and 9 nm for OLCI appear to satisfy validation activities in optically complex waters.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

    Impact of spectral resolution of in situ ocean color radiometric data in satellite matchups analyses

    No full text
    The spectral resolution requirements for in situ remote sensing reflectanceR measurements aiming at supporting satellite ocean color validation and System Vicarious Calibration (SVC) were investigated. The study, conducted using sample hyperspectral R from different water types, focused on the visible spectral bands of the ocean land color imager (OLCI) and of the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite sensors. Allowing for a ±0.5% maximum difference between in situ and satellite derived R solely due to the spectral band characteristics of the in situ radiometer, a spectral resolution of 1 nm for SVC of PACE is needed in oligotrophic waters. Requirements decrease to 3 nm for SVC of OLCI. In the case of validation activities, which exhibit less stringent uncertainty requirements with respect to SVC, a maximum difference of ±1% between in situ and satellite derived data indicates the need for a spectral resolution of 3 nm for both OLCI and PACE in oligotrophic waters. Conversely, spectral resolutions of 6 nm for PACE and 9 nm for OLCI appear to satisfy validation activities in optically complex waters

    Crew Resource Management (Crm): What Aviation Can Learn From The Application Of Crm In Other Domains

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    Crew Resource Management (CRM) was implemented into the aviation training curriculum over three decades ago in an effort to optimize flight deck management, safety, and improve flightcrew team performance. Since the mid-1990s, other industries have shown considerable interest in adapting and implementing CRM training to train their personnel in non-technical skills. This paper reviews the implementation of CRM in healthcare, the military, and the maritime industry. A comparison of different training methods and training assessment techniques, as well as gaps in the assessment of CRM training effectiveness are discussed. Lastly, a discussion of CRM training techniques and evaluation methods developed in other industries are presented for the consideration of the aviation community
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