Investigating Visual Alerting in Maritime Command and Control
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to investigate automated visual alerting in complex environments where operators rely on multiple display workstations to perform high-intensity tasks. The Halifax Class frigate is an example of such an environment; where the auditory modality is over-taxed and where visual alerts might be an alternate means for alerting operators. The two experiments investigated the ability to detect two types of visual alerts, and alerts appeared on the three displays making up the workstation. In Experiment 1, a flashing border surrounding the perimeter of the display screen was compared to a static sidebar alert positioned on the outer left side of the screen. In Experiment 2 a complete counterbalance of factors was achieved whereby both border and sidebar alerts were presented as flashing and static. Results showed that the sidebar alert was detected faster than border alerts regardless of whether it was flashing or static, and in general, sidebar alerts were detected faster when they appeared on all three displays as compared to one display. Future work will focus on examining the association between the display an alert appears on and the spatial location of operator attention.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA495477
Entities
People
- Jacquelyn M. Crebolder
- Jeffrey Beardsall
Organizations
- Defence Research and Development Canada