DEL10.10.02.D96 Innovation Analysis Report 2014

This Innovation Analysis Report 2014 builds upon two previous technology assessments in project 10.10.02 pursuing the usability evaluation of new display and interaction technology at a potential multimodal ATCO workplace within the TMA/ACC environment. Additional functionalities within the ATM systems and heightened demands for the ATS operator due to an increased number of traffic justify the need to scout and analyse new market trends and innovations available within the upcoming years. The current speed of innovations brings out many devices to support the operators with their task in safely separating traffic and which could potentially be used within the TMA/ACC environment. Working with devices like touch screens, tablets etc. in daily life, raises expectations on the end users side for the handling and look and feel of modern technical systems and HMIs. This report documents the technology assessments for Motion Caption/Sense Technologies, Mobility, NFC, eye tracking and the discussion outcomes of a moderated expert workshop providing insight into the potential usability and availability of multimodality for the ATCO workplace. The approach taken is a combination of literature reviews and assessments (experiments and workshop). The results are used for underlining the benefits of the technologies, and provide guidelines for deploying them. Indra assessed the accuracy and efficiency of new CWP complementary technologies such as Motion Caption/Sense Technologies, Mobility and Near Field Communication (NFC). The Motion Caption/Sense Technologies offer a promising interaction that allows the CWP to be aware of movements of the controller without the need that the user touches the CWP itself. Ultrasonic sensors, Cameras and LEAP Motion devices were assessed to test the real reliability of the devices. Mobility complements the interaction experience for the controller and extends the possibilities of multi-touch indirect interaction, which have been assessed in earlier studies by Indra. NFC allows the CWP to read smart tokens via radio frequency. Thales was involved in the innovation analysis of Eye tracker technology in the ATC environment, which has rapidly evolved between 2011 and 2013. The size and cost of the sensors has been reduced to offer solutions compatible with the public market. The major challenge of the eye tracking equipment is to be less sensitive to user movement and to cover the entire surface of the ATC display. The accuracy is compatible with the selection of a track label, and can thus be used as additional interaction mean to the mouse pointer. In addition, the technology seems to have a strong impact on the duration required for interacting with the HMI. In order to best support the operators (alerts, predictions, coordinations…), using the eye tracker technology could be a solution for reducing the time required for inputting data such as clearances. The objective of the assessment is to compare the usability for performing actions using the mouse or using the eye tracker. The test case specially evaluates the usability for pointing an aircraft and inputting data. In order to confirm the usability of the eye tracker, new functions were measured for SESAR projects that would like to implement an eye tracker system in order to support the human system dialog. The Workshop “Future Multimodal Controller Working Positions – Application-Related Scenarios and HMI Concept” took place from 16th to 17th of September at Braunschweig site of DLR. Ten participants, mostly project partners and an invited industrial design expert had an intense moderated discussion on future concepts for the CWP. In two consecutive sessions selected interaction technologies (eye tracking, automatic speech recognition and multi-touch) were discussed with respect to their availability within the scope of SESAR, as well as their usability to support a multimodal ATCO-system-interaction in an exemplary ATC scenario “Non RBT AC Crossing Sector”. Overall, the assessment results offer a valuable baseline for further developments and studies including potential evaluations with controllers to compare the solutions and assess the impacts on the CWP use and on the KPIs. Integrating several of these technologies on the same position could be the solution for building a new HMI concept to face the future challenges of ATM.