Human factors in virtual worlds. 2. Enabling interaction and performance

For pt.1 see ibid., p.3/1-3 (1992). The authors outline the nature of human factors (HF) research associated with the use of virtuality research (VR). While the previous paper addressed the issues of how best to represent the task from a cognitive perspective, here they focus upon the perceptual and interactive requirements that enable the human operator to complete the task. The discussion describes some of the perceptual characteristics of the human operator, how they relate to the system and task hardware, and why it is essential that they are properly understood. They present an example of VR-related HF research conducted at the Sowerby Research Centre. It is representative of the research they are conducting to increase their knowledge of the operator and to enable interaction and performance. >