State-of-the-Art and Future Concepts for Interaction in Aircraft Cockpits

Aircraft cockpits have substantially increased in complexity over the last 60 years. Whilst the additional instrumentation and systems have improved operational performance and certain aspects of situational awareness, they have also substantially increased the cognitive skills needed of pilots. A pilot interacts with the modern cockpit displays through cursor control devices (CCD), and the implementation and type of CCD has an impact on the quality, performance, and workload experienced by the pilot. This paper highlights the direction of research and development in pilot human-computer interaction (HCI) for both civilian and military aircraft, with regards to CCDs. Particular focus is placed on unconventional interaction methods that are being developed to provide more intuitive, naturally perceptive interfaces. Preliminary work by the authors in contribution to the evaluation of these new input modalities is also briefly presented.

[1]  Andrew T Duchowski,et al.  A breadth-first survey of eye-tracking applications , 2002, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[2]  S. J. Merhav,et al.  Adaptive suppression of biodynamic interference in helmet-mounted displays and head teleoperation , 1991 .

[3]  David B. Kaber,et al.  Improved Usability of Aviation Automation Through Direct Manipulation and Graphical User Interface Design , 2002 .

[4]  G.D.R. Zon,et al.  Using Voice to Control the Civil Flightdeck , 2006 .

[5]  Timothy Anderson,et al.  Alternative Control Technology for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles: Human Factors Considerations , 2003 .

[6]  Joseph C. Hickox,et al.  COMPARISON OF EXPERT AND NOVICE SCAN BEHAVIORS DURING VFR FLIGHT , 2001 .

[7]  Michael W. Haas,et al.  Virtually-augmented interfaces for tactical aircraft , 1995, Biological Psychology.

[8]  Klaus Bengler,et al.  A Usability Study on Hand Gesture Controlled Operation of In-Car Devices , 2001 .

[9]  Thomas A. Furness.  The Super Cockpit and its Human Factors Challenges , 1986 .

[10]  S L Chappell,et al.  Advanced concepts flight simulation facility. , 1986, Applied ergonomics.

[11]  Earl L. Wiener,et al.  Human factors of advanced technology (glass cockpit) transport aircraft , 1989 .

[12]  Michela Terenzi,et al.  A Random Glance at the Flight Deck: Pilots' Scanning Strategies and the Real-Time Assessment of Mental Workload , 2007 .

[13]  Gloria L. Calhoun,et al.  Use of Eye Control to Select Switches , 1986 .

[14]  Thomas A. Furness,et al.  Unique shared-aperture display with head or target tracking , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality 2002.

[15]  E J Lovesey.  The instrument explosion--a study of aircraft cockpit instruments. , 1977, Applied ergonomics.

[16]  R. Zon,et al.  Exploring the use of an eye tracker in a helmet mounted display , 2012 .

[17]  Suzanne D Smith,et al.  Head and helmet biodynamics and tracking performance in vibration environments. , 2006, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[18]  Kenneth R. Boff,et al.  Eye-Controlled Switching for Crew Station Design , 1984 .

[19]  Micah Alpern,et al.  Developing a car gesture interface for use as a secondary task , 2003, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[20]  Terrence Fong,et al.  Vehicle Teleoperation Interfaces , 2001, Auton. Robots.

[21]  Thomas A. Furness,et al.  A Shared-Aperture Tracking Display for Augmented Reality , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[22]  William Patrick Janson.  Eye and Head Response to Peripheral Targets , 1989 .

[23]  William J. Weiland,et al.  Eye-Voice-Controlled Interface , 1986 .

[24]  Mladjan Jovanovic,et al.  Designing Aircraft Cockpit Displays: Borrowing from Multimodal User Interfaces , 2009, Trans. Comput. Sci..

[25]  Marion Wolff,et al.  Human Centered Design Approach to Integrate Touch Screen in Future Aircraft Cockpits , 2013, HCI.

[26]  D. L. Baty,et al.  An advanced cockpit instrumentation system: The coordinated cockpit display , 1979 .

[27]  Franz Hatfield,et al.  Eye/Voice Mission Planning Interface (EVMPI). , 1995 .

[28]  Marco Fabbri,et al.  Direct tactile manipulation of the flight plan in a modern aircraft cockpit , 2012 .

[29]  Björn W. Schuller,et al.  A real-time system for hand gesture controlled operation of in-car devices , 2003, 2003 International Conference on Multimedia and Expo. ICME '03. Proceedings (Cat. No.03TH8698).

[30]  K. Rayner.  Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. , 1998, Psychological bulletin.

[31]  Brian W. Epps.  Comparison of Six Cursor Control Devices Based on Fitts' Law Models , 1986 .

[32]  Sidney Dekker,et al.  Mode Monitoring and Call-Outs: An Eye-Tracking Study of Two-Crew Automated Flight Deck Operations , 2006 .

[33]  Herman Stekler,et al.  Technological change in the military aircraft cockpit industry , 1988 .

[34]  Herbert De Smet,et al.  Projection technology for future airplane cockpits , 2012 .

[35]  Kumar Amit,et al.  AVIONICS CONTROL USING 3D GESTURES , 2014 .

[36]  Sohel Merchant,et al.  Applying eye tracking as an alternative approach for activation of controls and functions in aircraft , 2000, 19th DASC. 19th Digital Avionics Systems Conference. Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37126).

[37]  Gloria L. Calhoun,et al.  Eye Line-of-Sight Control Compared to Manual Selection of Discrete Switches , 1991 .

[38]  Hans-Werner Gellersen,et al.  Toward Mobile Eye-Based Human-Computer Interaction , 2010, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[39]  S. J. Merhav,et al.  Suppression of biodynamic interference in head-tracked teleoperation , 1990 .

[40]  Joshua Borah.  Investigation of Eye and Head Controlled Cursor Positioning Techniques. , 1995 .

[41]  Keith Hartley.  The eurofighter development programme , 1999 .