Smooth Operator - A Virtual Environment to Prototype and Analyse Operator Support in CCTV Surveillance Rooms.

Operators in closed-circuit television (CCTV) control rooms have to monitor large sets of video feeds coming from an ever increasing number of cameras. To assist these operators in their demanding day-to-day tasks, AI-driven support systems accompanied by user-centric interfaces are being developed. However, prototyping these support systems and testing them in operative control rooms can be a challenge. Therefore, in this paper, we present a virtual reality (VR) control room which can be used to investigate the effects of existing and future support systems on operators’ performance and behaviour in a fully controlled environment. Important assets of this VR control room include the possibility to subject operators to different levels of cognitive load and to monitor their cognitive-affective states using not only subjective but also behavioural and physiological techniques.