Overview Display Research Articles

Machine Learning-Supported Designing of Human–Machine Interfaces

The design and functionality of the human–machine interface (HMI) significantly affects operational efficiency and safety related to process control. Alarm management techniques consider the cognitive model of operators, but mainly only from a signal perception point of view. To develop a human-centric alarm management system, the construction of an easy-to-use and supportive HMI is essential. This work suggests a development method that uses machine learning (ML) tools. The key idea is that more supportive higher-level HMI displays can be developed by analysing operator-related events in the process log file. The obtained process model contains relevant data on the relationship of the process events, enabling a network-like visualisation. Attributes of the network allow us to solve the minimisation problem of the ideal workflow–display relation. The suggested approach allows a targeted process pattern exploration to design higher-level HMI displays with respect to content and hierarchy. The method was applied in a real-life hydrofluoric acid alkylation plant, where a proposal was made about the content of an overview display.

The effects of displaying availability sections of an automated driving function

So far, there has been little research into displaying the availability of a higher-level automated driving system. The benefits of presenting availability times while driving automatically have already been discussed, but there are no findings on giving information on all availability sections (operational design domains) independent of the current state of the automated driving system. This work aims to close this gap by conducting a driving simulator study with N = 54 participants to verify whether an overview display of all the road sections on which automated driving is possible has a positive effect on the participants’ acceptance, usability, workload, and task performances. Results showed that the presentation of this additional information had a significantly positive influence on both acceptance and task performance. The outcomes of this work indicate that the required transparency-creating information of the automated driving system should not be limited to safety-related information or the phases of automated driving itself.

Potential benefits of eye tracking within process control monitoring tasks

AbstractStatistically, about 70% of the process industry accidents in the refinery control room are caused by human error. It is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of the interaction between humans and the automated systems. This experiment investigated the effectiveness of Overview Displays in a refinery control room by using eye‐tracking measures. Specifically, control room operators were presented with three Overview Displays that have been adopted by the oil and gas industry under two levels of difficulty for each display. The dependent variables include five eye‐movement metrics that previous studies have related to cognitive processing. The results indicated that Overview Display type significantly affected eye‐movement behavior. The consistency between eye tracking results and the performance results suggesting the possibility that eye‐tracking measures could be used to indicate the performance results. The findings could be used to increase operator assessment effectiveness.

Multimodal Advanced Imaging for Concussion.

In the United States alone, 1.6 to 3.8 million people have sports-related concussions yearly. The patho-mechanisms of concussions may not be directly measured by conventional neuroimaging; advanced models may be needed to address the shortcomings of the current clinical protocols. Multimodal advanced imaging may provide more accurate diagnosis and predict the clinical course of concussion, assessing the efficacy of existing and emerging multifaceted therapies. In this article, the authors present an overview and pictorial display of conventional and advanced multimodal MR imaging methods that have been applied to identify the brain structures affected in traumatic brain injuries.

Micro Task Evaluation of Analog Vs. Digital Power Plant Control Room Interfaces

There is a need for efficient and transparent human performance measurement methods to support interface evaluation for control room modernization projects. This paper presents experiences from the second pilot test of a micro task method developed to support this need. We benchmarked performance with analog control boards in a nuclear power plant control room simulator against performance with a modern overview display. Within 2.5 hours of simulator time and with 16 licensed operators as participants, we collected data for 1152 micro task questions, recording response time and accuracy for each question. The paper describes the study methodology and results, and draws conclusions about the future use of the micro task method for evaluation and training.

Novel technique to measure horizontal corneal diameter using a Scheimpflug image on the Pentacam.

A new method to measure the horizontal corneal diameter using a Scheimpflug image (SFI) was introduced and compared with the automated iris camera photo (ICP) method on the Pentacam. Each one eye of 88 subjects without significant abnormality in the cornea was included. In SFI, diameters were measured manually using the built-in software tool with the edge-filter option. ICP value read from the overview display. Repeatability was determined from the first two measurements of each eye. The accuracy was assessed using Bland-Altman plot in comparison with caliper measurements. The measurement failure rate of ICP was aggravated by pupil dilation, while that of SFI was unrelated to pupil dilation. Repeatability coefficients of ICP and SFI were 0.1mm and 0.12mm, respectively. The mean difference between ICP values and caliper values was not significant. SFI values were greater than caliper measurements by a mean of 0.13mm. New SFI was reliable and could complement ICP in dilated pupil. The measurement failure rates of Pentacam need to be improved.

Decision support and vulnerability to interruption in a dynamic multitasking environment

Using a microworld simulation of maritime decision making, we compared two decision support systems (DSS) in their impact upon recovery from interruption. The Temporal Overview Display (TOD) and Change History Table (CHT) – designed to support temporal awareness and change detection, respectively – have previously proven useful in improving situation awareness; however, evaluation of support tools for multitasking environments should not be limited to the specific aspects of the task that they were designed to augment. Using a combination of performance, self-report, and eye-tracking measures, we find that both DSS counter-intuitively have a negative effect on performance. Resumption lags are increased, elevated post-interruption decision-making times persist for longer, and defensive effectiveness is impaired relative to No-DSS. Eye-tracking measures indicate that in the baseline condition, participants tend to encode the visual display more broadly, where as those in the two DSS conditions may have experienced a degree of attentional tunnelling due to high workload. We suggest that for a support tool to be beneficial it should ease the burden on attentional resources so that these can be used for reconstructing a mental model of the post-interruption scene.

Effective Temporal Awareness Support can Hinder Change Detection

Change blindness (CB) – the failure to notice visual changes – is an important source of human errors in managing dynamic multitasking situations, especially when the tempo at which the situation evolves as well as the timeliness of the decisions are critical to performance and to achieving higher order goals. The support of temporal awareness – in the form of a Temporal Overview Display (TOD) – proved successful in promoting time-based decision heuristics and increasing the timeliness of actions. In the present study, we test the impact on CB of a tool that provides an external time-based representation of the situation and its evolution within an air-warfare simulation that requires participants to perform radar-based subtasks. Although the use of the TOD was previously shown beneficial to performance, the tool may come with a drawback as participants missed a greater number of critical changes compared to a control condition. The TOD is associated with an exacerbation of the attentional source of CB as suggested by a higher percentage of fixated undetected changes. The contextual cues essential to detect a change may not be salient enough to be quickly found in the tool, especially when the operator must deal with time pressure, multitasking and multiple other sources of information. Our study highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to system development and evaluation in order to prevent unintended consequences such as higher CB rates.

Impact of Functional and Schematic Overview Displays on Console Operators’ Situation Awareness

Console operators in process plants have to maintain a high level of situation awareness to operate the plant safely, effectively, and efficiently. An overview display is one of the primary displays in a control room that operators monitor to gain and maintain an understanding of the plant. In this study, the authors evaluated operator performance using two overview display formats. The first format, characterized as a functional design, included qualitative, graphical indicators for process parameters and organized the position of the indicators on the basis of functional relations of the process equipment. The second format, characterized as a traditional schematic display, showed connecting process lines between equipment and numerical fields to present process information. Both displays contained the same indicator values. Eighteen plant operators used both display formats to monitor a crude unit process for process parameters that deviated from normal values. We measured operators’ situation awareness using think-aloud protocols and situation awareness global assessment technique, subjective workload, and usability ratings. Results indicated that operators’ situation awareness was significantly higher when they monitored the process on a functional display compared with a schematic display. Their subjective workload and usability ratings also favored the functional overview display format. Implications of the findings for continuous process control and overview display design are discussed.

Functional versus Schematic Overview Displays: Impact on Operator Situation Awareness in Process Monitoring

It is important for console operators to maintain good situation awareness while monitoring process operations. A key component that helps operators achieve better situation awareness is how the information about the process is displayed on their console. Most oil and gas refineries still utilize traditional schematic displays and connecting lines between equipments to present process information. In this study, we designed a functional layout for an overview display. This layout shows the same process parameters as a traditional schematic display, but in a different format. Eighteen plant operators viewed both displays to monitor a crude unit process and their situation awareness was measured. Results indicated that operators' situation awareness was significantly higher when they monitored the process on a functional display compared with a schematic display. The implications of the findings for continuous process control are discussed.

A Direct Perception, Span-of-Control Overview Display to Support a Process Control Operator's Situation Awareness: A Practice-oriented Design Process

This paper presents a practice-oriented design work process for designing effective, direct perception span-of-control overview displays for process control operator positions. Several industry-based failure modes of overview displays are discussed in the context of Endsley's model of situation awareness and the practice-oriented process. The three high-level steps of the design work process are: identify critical process variables, identify the critical interaction requirements, and identify the appropriate visualization requirements. This practice-oriented process draws from cognitive engineering techniques, namely cognitive work analysis and scenario-based design. A conceptual overview display for an actual process plant console operator position is presented and illustrative visualization requirements are discussed.

Overview + Detail in a Tomahawk Mission-to-Platform Assignment Tool: Applying Information Visualization in Support of an Asset Allocation Planning Task

Information visualization techniques such as overview + detail displays have traditionally been applied and studied in domains with static data sets supporting information retrieval tasks. This study examines how these techniques can be extended to the design of interfaces for decision support systems (DSSs). Specifically, we developed a computerized decision support tool to assist Naval Tomahawk Strike Coordinators in the complex process of assigning a set of planned missions to a set of available launch platforms based on a number of different constraints and objectives, and compared user performance on two realistic scenarios (a within-subjects factor) across two versions of this tool (a between-subjects factor). The first version of the Mission-to-Platform Assignment Tool provided users with only a set of detail displays when assigning missions, whereas the second version had an additional, abstracted ‘overview’ display that allowed users to see the effect of early decisions on later decisions. The results showed that subjects performing this planning task with the overview + details display version completed scenarios, on average, 21% faster, with 22% fewer errors and with 74% fewer required workspace navigation activities than a comparable group using just the detail displays version. Subjects in the former group also rated their situational awareness 14% higher than those subjects without the overview display.

A System for Visualizing and Analyzing Near-Optimal Protein Sequence Alignments

System modeling and analysis is an imperfect art and as a consequence there are problems where alternative solutions may exist. Information visualization is often used to enhance system modeling and analysis efforts by taking advantage of human perceptual capabilities. Our research uses visual representations of alternative solutions as a way to aid understanding and foster insight into problems, their solutions, and the underlying algorithms. Specifically, our system visualizes large sets of near-optimal protein sequence alignments. Prior efforts focused on the visualization of near-optimal alignments, using an animation metaphor for providing context to detailed displays. This paper discusses novel extensions: (1) a new overview display, the enhanced path graph; (2) the integration of the detail-oriented (animation) and overview-oriented (path graph) displays; and (3) additional human-computer interaction capabilities for filtering, highlighting, and mixed-initiative interaction that allow researchers to combine their expertise with algorithmic output to gain insight into the sequence alignment algorithms and the problem domain. Two case studies illustrate the effectiveness of this system.

IntegratedMap: a Web interface for integrating genetic map data

IntegratedMap is a Web application and database schema for storing and interactively displaying genetic map data. Its Web interface includes a menu for direct chromosome/linkage group selection, a search form for selection based on mapped object location and linkage group displays. An overview display provides convenient access to the full range of mapped and anchored object types with genetic locus details, such as numbers, types and names of mapped/anchored objects displayed in a compact scrollable list box that automatically updates based on selected map location and object type. Also, multilinkage group and localized map views are available along with links that can be configured for integration with other Web resources. IntegratedMap is implemented in C#/ASP.NET and the package, including a MySQL schema creation script, is available from http://cggc.agtec.uga.edu/Data/download.asp

Designing an Overview Display for Computer Supported Medication Administration to Reveal Hidden Dangers to Patient Safety

The Veterans Health Administration uses a software application called Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) to assist in medication administration. The wireless application is typically operated on a desktop or laptop computer, physically located on a mobile cart during med passes. It works with a handheld bar code reader to scan patient wristbands and their medications to verify a match between the patient identified and the medications scheduled at the time of the scanning. Since replacing the paper-based system with this technology the rate of medication errors has declined significantly. After a participatory design process developing an overview display for BCMA, it was concluded such an additional view on the patient and medication data has promising safety and efficiency benefits by (1) integrating the current med pass view with a broader summary of medications active in +/− 24 hours and the patient's condition, so that relationships can more easily be seen; and a natural direct manipulation mechanism to zoom in for more details would be provided; (2) including a picture of the patient as an additional form of identification; (3) supporting perceptual and mechanical filtering to separate medications by attributes (e.g. time due and status) and facilitate efficient situation awareness and prioritization of actions; (4) including status information for medication orders in other nurses' med passes so they can more easily collaborate; (5) for each medication showing both the last action and next action, so that status information can be used to maintain awareness of what has happened and is going to happen from a medication perspective.

The Effect of Overview Displays on Situation Assessment

The impact of overview displays when operating in a simulated environment (SimCity 2000) was assessed. Subjects in one condition had access to a fixed overview display on a separate CRT (an additional display that was absent in the no overview display condition). The experimenter operated the simulation based on the verbal instructions of the subjects. More trends were detected, and more verbalizations, in the overview display condition. There was also more discussion of the simulation state and more transitions from commenting about states to preparing actions, with the overview display. It is argued that the methodology used in this study, and the results obtained, demonstrate that measures such as situation assessment may be easier to interpret than performance measures, and less variable, because they are less likely to be influenced by extraneous factors. Thus they may be more sensitive indicators of the effect of changes in display design.

Supporting Situation Awareness of Individuals and Teams Using Group View Displays

This paper describes a project to design and test a large wall-mounted group view display intended to support situation awareness of individuals and multi-person teams in an advanced power plant control room. The design process began with an analysis of the requirements for situation awareness of individuals and teams to establish the design basis. A function-based cognitive task analysis was then used to define the plant state information to be included in the group view display. A phased test program was then initiated to establish the adequacy of the design concept. The first study employed sequences of static displays representing “snapshots” of evolving normal and emergency events. The second study tested dynamic group view displays (three 100 inch wall mounted displays) driven by a high-fidelity plant simulation. The study compared operator performance with the function-based group view display to operator performance using a more traditional physical mimic overview display. Dependent measures included (1) objective measures of performance, (2) operator ratings of the displays, and (3) workload measures. The measures provided statistically significant, converging evidence of the superiority of the function-based group view display. The implication of the results for design of group view displays to support individuals and teams are discussed.

Evaluation of a Rankine Cycle Display for Nuclear Power Plant Monitoring and Diagnosis

Traditionally, nuclear power plant control rooms have been designed according to a single-sensor single-indicator (SSSI) philosophy. Various researchers have proposed new display design principles, such as the mapping principle, which tries to overcome the limitations associated with the traditional approach by displaying higher-order functional information directly to operators. The mapping principle is exemplified by the Rankine cycle display, which is an overview display for monitoring and diagnosing the state of nuclear power plants. In this paper we present the results of the first formal evaluation of the Rankine display, comparing it with an SSSI display and a variation of the SSSI that also contains a pressure-temperature graph. The performance of undergraduate and graduate students in mechanical and nuclear engineering is compared with that of licensed nuclear power plant operators. Participants in each of these three groups were required to detect and diagnose abnormalities in dynamic scenarios using one of the three display. The results indicate that the nuclear power plant operators outperformed the other two groups and that the Rankine cycle display led to more accurate detection and diagnosis performance than did either of the other two displays. Finally, we discuss some additional issues that must be addressed before one can recommend that the Rankine cycle display be implemented in commercial nuclear power plant control rooms.

Development of an Early Fault Detection System for Nuclear Power Plants

Traditional process alarm systems have been found to have a limited capability to cope efficiently with dynamic process situations. One disadvantage with fixed alarm limits is that after a failure the alarms may need a long time before they are triggered. Therefore an early warning system has been developed and tested on a full scope nuclear power plant training simulator. The system is based on running small process section models in parallel with the process. Model outputs are then compared with corresponding plant measurements. Typical examples of reference models are described, as well as their behaviour when evaluated against real plant data. The man-machine interface of the system with a new type of overview display is also described.