Human-machine Interface Design Research Articles

The neuroergonomic evaluation of human machine interface design in air traffic control using behavioral and EEG/ERP measures

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) environment is complex and safety-critical. Whilst exchanging information with pilots, controllers must also be alert to visual notifications displayed on the radar screen (e.g., warning which indicates a loss of minimum separation between aircraft). Under the assumption that attentional resources are shared between vision and hearing, the visual interface design may also impact the ability to process these auditory stimuli. Using a simulated ATC task, we compared the behavioral and neural responses to two different visual notification designs—the operational alarm that involves blinking colored “ALRT” displayed around the label of the notified plane (“Color-Blink”), and the more salient alarm involving the same blinking text plus four moving yellow chevrons (“Box-Animation”). Participants performed a concurrent auditory task with the requirement to react to rare pitch tones. P300 from the occurrence of the tones was taken as an indicator of remaining attentional resources. Participants who were presented with the more salient visual design showed better accuracy than the group with the suboptimal operational design. On a physiological level, auditory P300 amplitude in the former group was greater than that observed in the latter group. One potential explanation is that the enhanced visual design freed up attentional resources which, in turn, improved the cerebral processing of the auditory stimuli. These results suggest that P300 amplitude can be used as a valid estimation of the efficiency of interface designs, and of cognitive load more generally.

Interface Design and Display-Control Compatibility

The increasing complexity of control room environments requires operators to interact with a wide variety of display signals and control devices. Therefore, the design of displays and controls plays an important part in determining the overall performance of operators. Compatible display-control design facilitates performance and reduces human errors that may occur as a result of a mismatch between the expectations of the operators and the relationships between the displays and controls. Three specific design compatibilities, namely, spatial compatibility, movement compatibility, and conceptual compatibility are introduced and discussed in detail in this paper. It is anticipated that this paper will provide pragmatic recommendations to assist interface designers to improve operational system effectiveness and safety by considering the many aspects of display-control compatibility necessary for effective human–machine interface design.

Reviewing In-vehicle Systems to Improve Fuel Efficiency and Road Safety

Road transport plays a significant role in various industries and mobility services around the globe and has a vital impact on our daily lives. However it also has serious impacts on both public health and the environment. In-vehicle feedback systems are a relatively new approach to encouraging driver behavior change for improving fuel efficiency and safety in automotive environments. While many studies claim that the adoption of eco-driving practices, such as eco-driving training programs and in-vehicle feedback to drivers, has the potential to improve fuel efficiency, limited research has integrated safety and eco-driving. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the human factors related theories and practices which will inform the design of an in-vehicle Human Machine Interface (HMI) that could provide real-time driver feedback and consequently improve both fuel efficiency and safety. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current state of published literature on in-vehicle systems to identify and evaluate the impact of eco-driving and safety feedback systems. This paper also discusses how these factors may conflict with one another and have a negative effect on road safety, while also exploring possible eco-driving practices that could encourage more sustainable, environmentally-conscious and safe driving behavior. The review revealed a lack of comprehensive theoretical research integrating eco-driving and safe driving, and no current available HMI covering both aspects simultaneously. Furthermore, the review identified that some eco-driving in-vehicle systems may enhance fuel efficiency without compromising safety. The review has identified a range of concepts which can be developed to influence driver acceptance of safety and eco-driving systems within the area of HMI. This can promote new research aimed at enhancing our understanding of the relationship between eco-driving and safety from the human factors viewpoint. This provides a foundation for developing innovative, persuasive and acceptable in-vehicle HMI systems to improve fuel efficiency and road safety.

Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE)

As nuclear power plants undertake main control room modernization, a challenge is the lack of a clearly defined human factors process to follow. To fill in guidance gaps and create a step-by-step process for control room modernization, we have developed the Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE). This approach builds on best practices in the software industry, which prescribe an iterative user-centered approach featuring multiple cycles of design and evaluation. Nuclear regulatory guidance for control room design emphasizes summative evaluation—which occurs after the design is complete. In the GONUKE approach, evaluation is also performed at the formative stage of design—early in the design cycle using mockups and prototypes for evaluation. The evaluation may involve expert review (e.g., software heuristic evaluation at the formative stage and design verification against human factors standards like NUREG-0700 at the summative stage). The evaluation may also involve user testing (e.g., usability testing at the formative stage and integrated system validation at the summative stage). An additional, often overlooked component of evaluation is knowledge elicitation, which captures operator insights into the system. In this paper we outline these evaluation types across design phases that support the overall modernization process. The objective is to provide industry-suitable guidance for steps to be taken in support of the design and evaluation of a new human-machine interface (HMI) in the control room.

Cognitive Based Design of a HMI for Telenavigation of A Space Rover

The Human Machine Interface (HMI) design is a critical field of work because no general guidelines or rules have been assessed. In order to aid practitioners to design effective HMIs, different methodologies have been studied. To understand task objectives and plan goal-oriented actions, human operators exploit specific cognitive processes that have to be supported with advanced interfaces. Including cognitive aspects in HMI design allows generating an information flow that reduces user mental workload, increasing his/her situation awareness. This paper will explore a real designing phase of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the telenavigation of a space rover that makes the cognitive process of the user a priority in relation to the other development guidelines. To achieve this, the method described in this paper combines a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), known as Applied Cognitive Work Analysis (ACWA), with a multi-agent empirical test to ensure the GUI effectiveness. The ACWA allows to evaluate mission scenarios, i.e. piloting the rover on the Mars surface, in order to obtain a model of the human cognitive demands that arise in these complex work domains. These demands can be used to obtain an effective information flow between the GUI and the operator. The multi-agent empirical test, on the other hand, allows an early feedback on the user mental workload aiming to validate the GUI. The result of the methodology is a GUI that eases the information flow through the interface, enhancing operator’s performance.

Computer-Aided Usability Evaluation of In-Vehicle Infotainment Systems

This paper reports the development of a computer-aided engineering (CAE) software for human machine interface (HMI) designers to predict and benchmark the usability of in-vehicle infotainment systems. At the front end of the software a graphic user interface (GUI) was developed that allows HMI designers to create digital mockups of designs and setup the tasks for simulation. At the back end a digital driver was created for simulating the driver cognition and performance based on the cognitive architecture of QN-MHP (Queuing Network-Model Human Processor). The software is able to simulate a driver performing in-vehicle secondary tasks (e.g., tuning radios) while steering a vehicle, make quantitative predictions of the driver’s task performance and workload. To validate the software outputs, an experiment was conducted on a driving simulator with two typical in-vehicle infotainment systems (a physical panel and a touch screen), and a radio tuning task was used as a test case. The results show that the software is able to generate task performance and workload estimates that are similar to the empirical data from human participants.

Assessing Response Time Effects of Forward Collision Warning HMIs with Central Tendency, Variance, and Dominance Tests

Reaction times (RTs) to driver warning system human-machine interface (HMI) designs are often used to assess their impact on driver detection performance. This paper introduces three different ways to statistically compare alternative HMIs in terms of RTs. The most commonly reported way is to compare central tendencies such as RT means or medians. A second approach, less commonly used, compares the variability in RT distributions associated with different HMIs as an assessment of the consistency of response effects elicited by an HMI across participants. The third method is to compare the RT distributions from alternative HMIs by means of ordinal dominance statistics. This assessment directly addresses the question: “Do people tend to respond faster with HMI A than HMI B (or vice versa)?” These alternative assessments are applied to RT data from a simulator study of several alternative forward collision warning (FCW) HMIs and the insights provided by each are discussed.

Design and Realization of Remote Control UAV’s Flight Controller

To provide UAV’s operator with flight information in real time, according to the property of remote control UAV and human-machine interface design, a flight controller has been implemented. The flight controller used LabWindows/CVI、GL Studio and UDP communication as the main developing platform. The system has been used in projection, and the test had showed that it could meet the need of the GCS(ground control station) of remote control UAV.

Evaluation of hydraulic excavator Human–Machine Interface concepts using NASA TLX

This study evaluated newly proposed Human–Machine Interface (HMI) design concepts for improving the ergonomics of hydraulic excavators. The design concepts were based on an augmented interaction technique which involved the use of heads-up display (HUD) and coordinated control as HMI elements. Two alternative HMI designs were elaborated in order to separately evaluate the ergonomic impacts of the head-up display and the coordinated control by comparing them to the standard HMI design. The effectiveness of these three HMI designs in terms of the reduction of the operators' mental and physical workload were assessed by conducting experiments utilizing human subjects, ages 23–35 years. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Task Load Index (NASA TLX) method was used for collecting subjective workload scores based on a weighted average of ratings of six factors: Mental Demand, Physical Demand, Temporal Demand, Own Performance, Effort, and Frustration Level. The results showed that the type of HMI design affects different aspects of the operator's workload. Indeed, it showed how the proposed augmented interaction is an effective solution for reducing the ergonomic gaps in terms of mental workload, and to a lesser extent the physical workload, subjected by the standard HMI design. Relevance to industryThis study proposes innovative HMI solutions featuring heads-up display and coordinated control to improve the ergonomics of the hydraulic excavator HMI, particularly in reducing the operators' mental and physical workload. The results of this study promises to be an innovative approach for developing new HMI designs by hydraulic excavator manufacturers.

Analysis of Usability of ECDIS Human-Machine Interface

Usability is a key indicator in the evaluation of Human-Machine Interface (HMI). ECDIS has a typical HMI for e-Navigation system. In order to improve the usability of ECDIS HMI, it is necessary to carry out usability evaluation. This paper investigated the time spent in executing typical navigation operations using two common designs, which are based on single document and dialog box. The accuracy of the theoretical prediction was verified against actual test results, and the efficiency of the two design schemes was compared. The research results can provide scientific guidance to improve the usability of ECDIS and design of HMI.

Analysis of Usability of ECDIS Human-Machine Interface

Usability is a key indicator in the evaluation of Human-Machine Interface (HMI). ECDIS has a typical HMI for e-Navigation system. In order to improve the usability of ECDIS HMI, it is necessary to carry out usability evaluation. This paper investigated the time spent in executing typical navigation operations using two common designs, which are based on single document and dialog box. The accuracy of the theoretical prediction was verified against actual test results, and the efficiency of the two design schemes was compared. The research results can provide scientific guidance to improve the usability of ECDIS and design of HMI.

A Human-machine Interface Evaluation Method Based on Balancing Principles

Human factors principles provide foundation for guidelines of various codes and standards in designing Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs). Also in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), a lot of guidelines from various codes and standard and derived from various research and development projects are available for designing Main Control Room (MCR) HMIs. However it is not easy to optimize and balance a great deal of information sources provided in NPP MCRs in a systematic manner. In this study, a balancing principle for HMI design optimization is proposed to be used in the HMI design of complex supervisory tasks in NPPs. The balancing principle is that a HMI element (e.g., an indicator or a push button) should be designed according to its importance. Design and importance attributes in the HMI design are recognized to apply the balancing principle, respectively. Two measures, Design preference to Importance Ratio (DIR) and Balancing Index (BI), based on the balancing principle are developed. The proposed principle and measures are then successfully applied to an HMI design evaluation. By using the proposed measures, unbalanced design features could be found out and reasonable recommendation could be made based on the evaluation results. As a further study, more extensive attention should be paid to considerations on how to find out and apply various design and importance attributes in the HMI design.

The Human-Machine Interface Design Based on Labview for Recycling Metals from Mixed Metallic Particles

Vacuum metallurgy method is an economically viable and environmentally friendly way for recycling toxic heavy metals from e-waste. For the mixed metallic metals (MMP) obtained from waste printed circuit boards, the vacuum separating steps and related parameters are different and massive. This paper designs the front panel and the related block diagram programming based on Labview software. The explored human-machine interface realizes the convenient and intuitive guiding for vacuum separating metals from various kinds of MMP.

Design and Implementation of Human-machine Interface Oriented to Space Service Robot

Design and Implementation of Human-machine Interface Oriented to Space Service Robot

Study on Forklift Cockpit Design Based on Ergonomics

With the application of ergonomics in product design increasingly widely, humanization design of products has become a new revolution in the field of design. Based on the study of ergonomics, taking the forklift as an example, combined with the human body size data, operating characteristics and other factors, this paper analyzes the forklift cockpit human factors, such as the overall space layout, the human-machine interface design and the manipulation device arrangement, and proposes the concept of people-oriented forklift cockpit design. The research has taken an important step in this area of the modified forklift cockpit.

The Design of Human-Machine Interface for Rudder Control System Monitoring Platform Based on WinCC

This paper describes a Human-Machine interface for rudder control system based on WinCC. This interface contains the dynamic monitoring screen for rudder control system, and it can communicate with PLC and WinCC. The Human-Machine Interface has an overview schematic of steering system, and there are five sub-screens in the overview schematic including Unit screen, Measure screen, Alarm screen, Trend screen and Table screen. The display patterns of data are virtual dashboard and curves, and it can be recoded, saved and printed. The system achieves the communication between PLC and WinCC by using OPC. Experiments demonstrated that setting up a monitoring platform for industrial production achieve a visual monitoring, data acquisition and display effectively.

Categorical Vowel Perception Enhances the Effectiveness and Generalization of Auditory Feedback in Human-Machine-Interfaces

Human-machine interface (HMI) designs offer the possibility of improving quality of life for patient populations as well as augmenting normal user function. Despite pragmatic benefits, utilizing auditory feedback for HMI control remains underutilized, in part due to observed limitations in effectiveness. The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which categorical speech perception could be used to improve an auditory HMI. Using surface electromyography, 24 healthy speakers of American English participated in 4 sessions to learn to control an HMI using auditory feedback (provided via vowel synthesis). Participants trained on 3 targets in sessions 1–3 and were tested on 3 novel targets in session 4. An “established categories with text cues” group of eight participants were trained and tested on auditory targets corresponding to standard American English vowels using auditory and text target cues. An “established categories without text cues” group of eight participants were trained and tested on the same targets using only auditory cuing of target vowel identity. A “new categories” group of eight participants were trained and tested on targets that corresponded to vowel-like sounds not part of American English. Analyses of user performance revealed significant effects of session and group (established categories groups and the new categories group), and a trend for an interaction between session and group. Results suggest that auditory feedback can be effectively used for HMI operation when paired with established categorical (native vowel) targets with an unambiguous cue.

Automatic Control System of Stone Sawing Machine Based on PLC and Human-Computer Interface

This paper designs a PLC automatic control system in stone cutting. The author elaborated the stone cutting process, the system hardware/software design and the human-machine interface design process. This system is the collection of PLC, sensing detection, frequency converter, configuration control technology and advanced stone cutting process in an organic whole. The author designed optional automatic/manual function and parameters setting screen. The author added limit current protection and position protection, and designed function of automatic detecting cooling water shortage to protect the saw blade from damage. Also the designed equipment can automatic light and bell for alarm. Operation results show that, this system can meet the designed requirement, and can remarkably improve the quality of stone processing. This designed control system has high machining accuracy, high intelligence, full automation, perfect protection, friendly man-machine interface and simple operation.

Feature-channel subset selection for optimising myoelectric human-machine interface design

This paper proposes a feature-channel subset selection method for obtaining an optimal subset of features and channels of myoelectric human-machine interface applied to classify upper limb’s motions using multi-channel myoelectric signals. It employs a multi-objective genetic algorithm as a search strategy and either data separability index or classification rate as an objective function. A wide range of features in time, frequency, and time-scale domains are examined, and a modification that reduces the bias of cardinality in the separability index is evaluated. The proposed method produces a compact subset of features and channels, which results in high accuracy by linear classifiers without a need of preliminary tailor-made adjustments.

Design of Human Machine Interface Based on ARM and Linux

In order to provide more convenient options for users and developers, the design of Human Machine Interface (HMI) based on ARM and embedded Linux is put forward. It makes full use of multiple peripherals of ARM and flexibility of Linux OS. Firstly, hardware design of the HMI system is presented. Then methods of embedded Linux transplanting and the device drivers programming are discussed. Finally, running results and applications of the designed HMI are considered. The design combines the features of traditional HMI and Micro Control Unit (MCU) HMI, including low cost, rich interfaces and easy programming.