Showing papers on "Situation awareness published in 2003"

Designing for Situation Awareness: An Approach to User-Centered Design

Abstract: Understanding Situation Awareness in System Design User-Centered Design Who Is This Book For? Why Do We Need User-Centered Design? What Does User-Centered Design Mean? Principles for User-Centered Design Situation Awareness: The Key to User-Centered Design What Is Situation Awareness? SA Defined Time as a Part of SA Situation Awareness as a Product of the Process Perception and Attention Working Memory Mental Models, Schema, and Scripts Goals and SA Expectations Automaticity and SA Summary SA Demons: The Enemies of Situation Awareness Attentional Tunneling Requisite Memory Trap Workload, Anxiety, Fatigue, and Other Stressors Data Overload Misplaced Salience Complexity Creep Errant Mental Models Out-of-the-Loop Syndrome Summary Design Process Systems Development Life Cycle User Interface Design Process Situation Awareness-Oriented Design Creating Situation Awareness-Oriented Designs Determining SA Requirements Goal-Directed Task Analysis Methodology Overview Interviews Determining the Preliminary Goal Structure Future Interviews Interview Issues Organizational Tips GDTA Validation Principles of Designing for SA From Theory to Design Case Study: SA-Oriented Design Confidence and Uncertainty in SA and Decision Making Uncertainty Types and Sources of Uncertainty Role of Confidence in Linking SA and Decision Making Management of Uncertainty Design Principles for Representing Uncertainty Dealing with Complexity Simplified View of Complexity Design Principles for Taming Complexity Alarms, Diagnosis, and SA An Alarming Practice Processing Alarms in the Context of SA Principles for the Design of Alarm Systems Automation and Situation Awareness Automation: A Help or a Hindrance? Out-of-the-Loop Syndrome Automation and Level of Understanding Decision Support Dilemma New Approaches to Automation Principles for Designing Automated Systems Designing to Support SA for Multiple and Distributed Operators Team Operations SA in Teams What Is Shared SA? Critical Factors Affecting SA in Teams SA in Distributed Teams SA Breakdowns in Teams Design Principles for Supporting Team Operations Unmanned and Remotely Operated Vehicles Unmanned Vehicles for Many Uses Classes of Unmanned Vehicle Control Human Error in Unmanned Vehicle Operations Situation Awareness Requirements for Unmanned Vehicle Operations Challenges for SA in Remote Operations Factors for Effective Design of Unmanned Vehicle Tasks and Systems Summary SA Oriented Training Need for Training to Enhance SA Challenges for Novices Mental Models Form a Key Mechanism for Expertise Schema of Prototypical Situations or Patterns Critical Skills for SA Examples of SA Deficits in Novices Training Approaches for Improving Situation Awareness Summary Completing the Design Cycle Evaluating Design Concepts for SA Indirect Measures of Situation Awareness Direct Measures of Situation Awareness Measuring Team SA Case Study Summary Applying SA-Oriented Design to Complex Systems Combating the Enemies of Situation Awareness SA-Oriented Design Synergy System Evaluation Future Directions Appendix A: Goal-Directed Task Analysis for Commercial Airline Pilots References Index

First responder communications system

Abstract: A First Responder Communications System (FRCS), also referred to as an Automated Incident Control System, is provided that supports inter-agency and intra-agency communications among first responders including fire, police, border patrol, emergency medical service, safety, and/or other agencies. The FRCS also supports communication among multiple on-scene agencies and various command and control personnel and increases situational awareness by automatically providing position information as well as other sensor information. Components of the FRCS integrate multiple communications channels including High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), Ultra High Frequency (UHF)/microwave, cellular, satellite, and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The FRCS also provides position and time information via Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or other positioning systems, and data from deployed and/or personal sensors to provide enhanced communications, command and control capabilities to the first responders and incident command.

Designing for situation awareness

Abstract: Designing for situation awareness , Designing for situation awareness , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

Augmented reality situational awareness system and method

Abstract: Method and apparatus are presented for prioritizing and assessing navigation data using an Augmented Reality navigation aid. Navigators are often placed in treacherous, unfamiliar, or low-visibility situations. An augmented reality navigation aid is used to overlay relevant computer-generated images, which are anchored to real-world locations of hazards, onto one or more users' field of view. Areas of safe passage for transportation platforms such as ships, land vehicles, and aircraft can be displayed via computer-generated imagery or inferred from various attributes of the computer-generated display. The invention is applicable to waterway navigation, land navigation, and to aircraft navigation (for aircraft approaching runways or terrain in low visibility situations). A waterway embodiment of the invention is called WARN™, or Waterway Augmented Reality Navigation™. A method is presented for visualization of hazards which pose a serious threat to those in the immediate vicinity. Such hazards include, but are not limited to, fire, smoke, radiation, and invisible gasses. The method utilizes augmented reality, which is defined as the mixing of real world imagery with computer-generated graphical elements. Computer-generated three-dimensional representations of hazards can be used in training and operations of emergency first responders and others. The representations can be used to show the locations and actions of a variety of dangers, real or computer-generated, perceived or not perceived, in training or operations settings. The representations, which may be graphic, iconic, or textual, are overlaid onto a view of the user's real world, thus providing a reality augmented with computer-generated hazards. A user can then implement procedures (training and operational) appropriate to the hazard at hand. A method is presented which uses Augmented Reality for visualization of text and other messages sent to an EFR by an incident commander. The messages are transmitted by the incident commander via a computer at the scene to an EFR/trainee in an operational or training scenario. Messages to an EFR/trainee, including (but not limited to) iconic representation of hazards, victims, structural data, environmental conditions, and exit directions/locations, are superimposed right onto an EFR/trainee's view of the real emergency/fire and structural surroundings. The primary intended applications are for improved safety for the EFR, and improved EFR-incident commander communications both on-scene and in training scenarios.

Situation Awareness Oriented Design: From User's Cognitive Requirements to Creating Effective Supporting Technologies

Abstract: Situation awareness is a fundamental construct driving human decision making in complex, dynamic environments. By creating designs that enhance an operator's awareness of what is happening in a giv...

Aviation weather awareness and reporting enhancements (AWARE) system using a temporal-spatial weather database and a bayesian network model

Abstract: An Aviation Weather Awareness and Reporting Enhancements (AWARE) system provides situational awareness by effectively filtering, analyzing and visualizing aviation weather data and specific hazard alerts in preflight, in-cockpit and controller applications. The AWARE system includes a temporal-spatial databases that filters weather data and a Bayesian network that assesses specific hazards in the filtered weather data in the context of pilot preferences, aircraft properties and airport properties. The filtered weather data and hazard alerts are then displayed on a client.

World embedded interfaces for human-robot interaction

Abstract: Human interaction with large numbers of robots or distributed sensors presents a number of difficult challenges including supervisory management, monitoring of individual and collective state, and apprehending situation awareness. A rich source of information about the environment can be provided even with robots that have no explicit representations or maps of their locale. To do this, we transform a robot swarm into a distributed interface embedded within the environment. Visually, each robot acts like a pixel within a much larger visual display space so that any robot need only communicate a small amount of information from its current location. Our approach uses augmented reality techniques for communicating information to humans from large numbers of small-scale robots to enable situation awareness, monitoring, and control for surveillance, reconnaissance, hazard detection, and path finding.

Human control of multiple robots in the RoboFlag simulation environment

Abstract: Human performance and supervisory control strategies were examined using the RoboFlag simulation environment. In an emulation of a multiple unmanned vehicle mission, a single operator supervised a team of six robots using automated modes or "plays" as well as manual control. Simplified form of a delegation type interface, Playbook, was used. Effects on user performance of two factors, opponent "posture" (offensive, defensive, or mixed) and environmental uncertainty (visual range of the robots: low, medium, or high), were examined in 18 participants who completed five mission trials in each of the nine combinations of these factors. Objective performance measures and subjective assessments of mental workload and situation awareness were obtained from each participant. Opponent posture had a significant effect on the percent of missions successfully completed and the duration of the games. Both opponent posture and visual range also significantly affected the use of manual and automated control strategies. Operator strategy selection and implementation are discussed with regard to performance data and the design of supervisory control interfaces that support flexible task delegation.

System and method for emergency response

Abstract: This application describes an information and resource management system for collecting data from diverse sources and organizing multiple types of data and information to facilitate dynamic multi-dimensional displays that will enhance cognition and situational awareness for diverse user communities. This system may facilitate collaborative cross-agency research and response to public health and safety issues. The system will generate more rapid awareness of potentially critical situations and promote greater awareness of the cost and benefits of alternative courses of action across diverse agencies and organizations serving common populations and communities. The invention includes customized geographically enabled data collection tools and techniques, dedicated databases and parsing schemes that feed into customized data visualization and simulation engines that drive the display of context sensitive interactive environments on a wide variety of computing platforms. The invention provides a novel approach to inter-disciplinary information integration processing, visualization, sharing and decision-making in the domain of public health and safety, disaster management and mitigation.

Chex (Change History Explicit): New HCI Concepts for Change Awareness

Abstract: Current display technologies do not support users in the critical task of recovering their situation awareness by determining whether situations have changed in meaningful ways. By simply representing the current state of a situation, displays force users to rely on their own ability to extract changes by cognitively integrating events over time. A flood of recent experiments have demonstrated dramatic limitations in these cognitive processes, with humans unable to spot changes in simple scenes, even under optimal monitoring conditions (they show “change blindness”). Here, we develop and empirically evaluate a set of new HCI concepts, collectively called CHEX (Change History Explicit), for supporting improved change awareness in a naval air warfare domain in which users monitor an airspace. CHEX augments the human attentional system with a set of intelligent change detectors whose output is logged in a re-configurable table format that is linked back to the situation display. We show that CHEX is extremel...

Synthetic Vision Enhances Situation Awareness and RNP Capabilities for Terrain-Challenged Approaches

Abstract: The Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) Project of Aviation Safety Program is striving to eliminate poor visibility as a causal factor in aircraft accidents as well as enhance operational capabilities of all aircraft through the display of computer generated imagery derived from an onboard database of terrain, obstacle, and airport information. To achieve these objectives, NASA 757 flight test research was conducted at the Eagle-Vail, Colorado airport to evaluate three SVS display types (Head-Up Display, Head-Down Size A, Head-Down Size X) and two terrain texture methods (photo-realistic, generic) in comparison to the simulated Baseline Boeing-757 Electronic Attitude Direction Indicator and Navigation / Terrain Awareness and Warning System displays. These independent variables were evaluated for situation awareness, path error, and workload while making approaches to Runway 25 and 07 and during simulated engine-out Cottonwood 2 and KREMM departures. The results of the experiment showed significantly improved situation awareness, performance, and workload for SVS concepts compared to the Baseline displays and confirmed the retrofit capability of the Head-Up Display and Size A SVS concepts. The research also demonstrated that the pathway and pursuit guidance used within the SVS concepts achieved required navigation performance (RNP) criteria.

Multi-agent situation awareness error evolution in accident risk modelling

Abstract: A mathematical model is presented for the evolution of situation awareness within the context of human performance modelling in accident risk assessment for ATM. Various aspects of situation awareness are defined within a group of agents, such as human operators and technical systems. Application of the model is illustrated for an accident risk assessment of an active runway crossing operation.

Enhanced Situation Awareness in Sea, Air and Land Environments

Abstract: Summary United States (US) military Special Forces teams currently use 2D visual displays for navigation information in the air, in water, and on the ground These current displays demand the user’s visual attention, which can compromise mission effectiveness, and using visual displays in low light visibility environments can cause fatigue, degrade performance, and compromise a clandestine situation If navigation equipment that is dependent on visual displays were integrated with a tactile display, the need to use vision for navigation could be minimized The operator could be more effective if his eyes were used to survey the surroundings rather than continuously monitor a visual display The Tactile Situation Awareness System for Special Forces (TSAS-SF) was developed to investigate the potential of tactile displays for Special Forces operations The TSAS-SF will upgrade present 2D visual navigation displays and will provide non-visual, non-audible navigation information to Special Forces personnel by interfacing navigation information with a tactile display This new capability will provide 2D direction cues to the skin, which will free the user’s visual senses for higher priority tasks (eg contact identification and classification) Preliminary testing in a High Altitude, High Opening (HAHO) parachute environment and a ground environment, and earlier testing in an underwater environment (McTrusty, Walters, 1997, Rupert, McTrusty, Peak, 1999), have demonstrated that navigation can be performed faster with tactile cues than visual cues, and superior navigational accuracy can be achieved with less mental fatigue on the operator These results suggest that a tactile display that provides ‘eyes free’ and ‘hands free’ air and ground navigation information may provide the opportunity to devote more time to other instruments and tasks when operating in high workload conditions These effects can increase mission effectiveness The preliminary results from the air and ground navigation tests justify continued testing and evaluation to extend the capabilities of the tactile display, for use as an operational device for navigation in sea, air and land environments

Apparatus and method for ensuring retention of situational awareness by employing an active network guidance and emergency logic (angel) system

Abstract: A preferred embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention relates to an apparatus for Active Network Guidance and Emergency Logic (ANGEL). ANGEL is a computer based program designed to function preferably in the mission computer on a vehicle, preferably an aircraft The program is preferably installed as part of an aircraft's Operational Flight Program (OFP) card(s) in the mission computer. ANGEL new versions and updates can be installed along with OFP updates. A second aspect of the present invention is a method for integrating and interacting with vehicle subsystems and controller subsystems, to prevent mishaps and accidents during a mission. ANGEL can prevent aircrew and aircraft problems by providing cueing or automation of emergency tasking, displaying procedures for aircrew to respond in emergency situations and providing assistance to an incapacitated pilot. In addition, ANGEL improves aircrew and aircraft survivability by reducing susceptibility to air to air and ground to air threats, reducing controlled flight into terrain and midair collisions and aiding in successful ejection from unrecoverable aircraft.

Monitoring experiences from command and control research with the C3Fire microworld

Abstract: This paper discusses experiences from monitoring command and control in research with the C3Fire microworld environment. The experiences are based on three microworld studies where a total of 192 persons participated as students. 132 of these students were computer-literate undergraduate students and 60 were professional military officers. During the three studies, different monitoring strategies were used to meet the goals of the studies. The main monitoring goal has been to detect different aspects of the teamwork performed by the subjects in the experiments. The focus of the monitoring goal was: 1) to monitor the effectiveness of the students' work and the communication patterns between the students in a command and control situation 2) to monitor the students' situation awareness (SA) when the students were using a graphical- or a textual-based information system 3) to monitor the students' work procedures and the possibilities of automatically analysing textual information sent by e-mail.

Semantic agent technologies for tactical sensor networks

Abstract: Recent advances in wireless communication and microelectronics have enabled the development of low-cost sensor devices leading to interest in large-scale sensor networks for military applications. Sensor networks consist of large numbers of networked sensors that can be dynamically deployed and used for tactical situational awareness. One critical challenge is how to dynamically integrate these sensor networks with information fusion processes to support real-time sensing, exploitation and decision-making in a rich tactical environment. In this paper, we describe our work on an extensible prototype to address the challenge. The prototype and its constituent technologies provide a proof-of-concept that demonstrates several fundamental new approaches for implementing next generation battlefield information systems. Many cutting-edge technologies are used to implement this system, including semantic web, web services, peer-to-peer network and content-based routing. This prototype system is able to dynamically integrate various distributed sensors and multi-level information fusion services into new applications and run them across a distributed network to support different mission goals. Agent technology plays a role in two fundamental ways: resources are described, located and tasked using semantic descriptions based on ontologies and semantic services; tracking, fusion and decision-making logic is implemented using agent objects and semantic descriptions as well.

Measuring Shared and Team Situation Awareness in the Army's Future Objective Force:

Abstract: A simulation exercise was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a new Army force structure called Objective Force. This paper will describe how shared and team situation awareness (SA) were meas...

Mental workload and situation awareness: essential concepts for aviation psychology practice. in principles and practice of aviation psychology

Abstract: The organizing principle behind this paper is that mental workload and situational awareness are key concepts in aviation psychology. The two concepts capture important aspects of the pilot's reactions to the current task environment and his or her performance. A complete understanding of the pilot's state requires that both mental workload and situation awareness must be measured. Research combining these approaches is important because it will provide the most powerful test of the utility of mental workload and situation awareness as a meta-measure for characterizing the demands of aviation on human cognitive capabilities.

Information fusion for situational awareness

Abstract: Information Fusion is beginning to defined in our process. We conclude with a receive increased attention not only within the discussion on metrics. military, but also within the civilian sector. The notion of maintaining constant awareness of one's 1.1 Background surroundings is not a new military goal, but to provide this capability through computers has been a long standing and challenging problem. In this Over the years, more than thirty fusion longpstandin and will aloenging paous tc Iq this wmodels

An aerial robot prototype for situational awareness in closed quarters

Abstract: More often homeland security, disaster mitigation and military operations are performed in urban environments. Time consuming, labor intensive and possibly dangerous tasks like bomb detection, search-and-rescue and reconnaissance done with robots could save resources. An aerial robot capable of flying in closed quarters like warehouses, stadiums, underground parking lots and tunnels is featured. The working prototype can fly slowly, safely and transmit wireless video for situational awareness. The design is analytic and employs a multi-disciplinary design optimization to formulate the integration of aerodynamics, sensor suite and task performance.

Integrated peer-to-peer applications for advanced emergency response systems. Part I. Concept of operations

Abstract: The catastrophes of September 11, 2001 put Arlington County's emergency response system to the test They revealed capabilities and limitations otherwise overlooked during previous standard emergency response assessments There were three key issues in the response to 9/11 that are recurring in jurisdictions across the nation: 1) reliance on voice-oriented communications; 2) limited situational awareness; and 3) lack of interoperability A concept of operations integrating current commercially available technology in a system designed for the emergency response coordinator addresses these issues To visualize this concept, a graphical user interface that displays the required functionalities described in the concept of operations is presented High-ranking emergency response personnel from Arlington County, Virginia have conveyed that this solution is, indeed, feasible The next step towards implementation includes exploring peer-to-peer networks in integrating the technologies described

The ADEPT Framework for Intelligent Autonomy

Abstract: This paper describes the design and implementation of Draper Laboratory’s All-Domain Execution and Planning Technology (ADEPT) architecture for intelligent autonomy. Intelligent autonomy is the ability to plan and execute complex activities in a manner that provides rapid, effective response to stochastic and dynamic mission events. Thus, intelligent autonomy enables the high-level reasoning and adaptive behavior for an unmanned vehicle that is provided by an operator in man-in-the-loop systems. Draper’s intelligent autonomy has architecture evolved over a decade and a half beginning in the mid 1980’s [3, 4, 6 and 12] culminating in an operational experiment funded under DARPA’s Autonomous Minehunting and Mapping Technologies (AMMT) unmanned undersea vehicle program [15]. ADEPT continues to be refined through its application to current programs that involve air vehicles, satellites and higher-level planning used to direct multiple vehicles. The objective of ADEPT is to solidify a proven, dependable software approach that can be quickly applied to new vehicles and domains. The architecture can be viewed as a hierarchical extension of the sense-think-act paradigm of intelligence and has strong parallels with the military’s Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop [14]. The key elements of the architecture are planning and decision-making nodes comprising modules for situation assessment, plan generation, plan implementation and coordination. A reusable, object-oriented software framework has been developed that implements these functions. As the architecture is applied to new areas, only the application specific software needs to be developed. This paper describes the core architecture in detail and discusses how this has been applied in the undersea, air, ground and space domains.

Formalization of Situation Awareness

Abstract: Situation awareness means simply that one knows what is going on around oneself. In operational terms, this means that one knows the information that is relevant to a task. Maintaining a coherent awareness of the situation is essential to successful task completion. We propose a formal basis for situation awareness that draws on sources and makes use of techniques from the logic, human-computer interaction and data fusion communities. Our framework includes formalizations of the data fusion process as well as the notion of a situation. We express our formalization using various languages, including UML, DAML and the Slang formal methods language, each of which has its own unique contribution to our framework.

A visualization tool for situational awareness of tactical and strategic security events on large and complex computer networks

Abstract: Situational awareness of the state of military computer networks is important for both tactical battlefield operations and strategic command-and-control networks. While there have been successful efforts to visualize the state of individual network infrastructure components (routers, links) using SNMP and other network management tools, these systems do not focus on security. Although there have been multiple research proposals, to our knowledge there have only been two realized systems which attempt to visualize security events. Assessing the overall security of a large and complex network is an open problem due to the multidimensional data space. We present a tool, NVisionIP, that makes a direct contribution to solving this open problem. NVisionIP is unique from existing systems in that it simultaneously visualizes multidimensional characteristics of individual computers as well as their relationship to network-wide security events in an entire Class B IP address space.

FutureFlight Central: A Revolutionary Air Traffic Control Tower Simulation Facility

Abstract: A new air traffic control tower research facility dedicated to countering potential air and runway traffic problems at commercial airports is advancing the state- of-the-art in aviation research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center. FutureFlight Central (FFC), is a unique real-time simulator designed to safely study new technologies, airport design changes or redesigns, and procedural changes in a virtual reality setting. The facility consists of a full-scale control tower, which depicts a 360-degree view of the airport under various weather conditions and times of day. Actual air traffic controllers operate the tower and communicate with pilots, ramp controllers and vehicle operators. "Humans-in-the-loop" provide a key distinction between conventional fast time simulation and what NASA has created in FFC. Human factors such as situational awareness, reaction time, visual perception and oral communication validate new designs and tools at a significantly higher level of accuracy and confidence. Recent integration of the tower with full- mission flight simulation allows assessment of airport changes from both the controller and pilot perspectives. With this new capability, technology developers, airport planners, and airline representatives are able to make more informed decisions. This paper describes the capabilities of FutureFlight Central, provides examples of typical projects, and addresses future applications.

Addressing the homeland security problem: A collaborative decision-making framework

Abstract: A majority of critical decisions requires collaborative efforts among analysts to build situation awareness. Teams of decision makers frequently have to react to incoming facts and developing events in a timely fashion such that the consequences of the decisions made largely have a positive impact on a developing situation. This problem is further exacerbated due to the multitude of agencies involved in the decision-making process. Thus, the decision-making processes faced by the intelligence agencies are characterized by group deliberations that are highly ill structured and yield limited analytical tractability. In this context, a collaborative approach to providing cognitive support to decision makers using a connectionist modeling approach is proposed. The connectionist modeling of such decision scenarios offers several unique and significant advantages in developing systems to support collaborative discussions. Several inference rules for augmenting the argument network and to capture implicit notions in arguments are proposed. We further explore the effects of incorporating notions of information source reliability within arguments and the effects thereof.