Suchergebnisse

Objectives: Examine how driving experience and expectations affect the ability of experienced drivers to identify traffic signs — specifically, no right turn (NRT) and no left turn (NLT) at intersections. Background: Failure to heed signs is a frequent cause of accidents, and the authors focused on the contributions of experience and expectancy to sign identification. Method: Inexperienced and experienced drivers were connected to an eye tracker system and briefly exposed to various traffic scenes. Some of the pictures included an NRT sign at the expected location (on the right), and some included the same sign at an unexpected location (on the left). The same procedure was used with an NLT traffic sign. Results: Experienced drivers identified traffic signs better than inexperienced drivers did when the signs were posted at the expected location but identified them worse than did inexperienced drivers when they were at unexpected locations. Conclusions: With experience, drivers' expectations regarding the expected location of traffic signs become so strong that violating these expectancies results in more identification errors among experienced drivers than among inexperienced drivers. To optimize experienced drivers' traffic sign identification, signs must be located in accordance with drivers' expectations — specifically, on the right side of the road. Applications: When signs are misplaced, crashes can be caused by inappropriate placement rather than inappropriate driving. Highway designers should ensure that their design conforms to standards that shape experienced drivers' expectations.

Objective Evaluating the ability of a Gibsonian-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to reduce the cognitive workloads of military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operators. Background Military UAV operators use the command-and-control (C2) map for developing mission-relevant situation awareness (SA). Yet C2 maps are overloaded with information, mostly irrelevant to the mission, causing operators to neglect the map altogether. To reduce irrelevant information, an intelligent filtering algorithm was developed. Here we evaluate its effectiveness in reducing operators' cognitive workloads. Method Two-stage operational scenarios were conducted with professional ex-military UAV operators, using two filter protocols and a no-filter control. High-end real-time techniques were used to continuously assess workload from muscle behavior and machine learning models. Results Lower cognitive workload was found when applying the algorithm's protocols, especially when fatigue started to accumulate (Stage II). However, concerns about the quality of SA arose. Conclusion The algorithm was positively evaluated for its ability to reduce operators' cognitive workloads. More evaluations of operators' SA are required. Application The algorithm demonstrates the possibility of integrating AI to improve human performance in complex systems, and can be applied to other domains where spatial-temporal information needs to be contextually filtered in real time.

Three advanced natural interaction modalities for mobile robot guidance in an indoor environment were developed and compared using two tasks and quantitative metrics to measure performance and workload. The first interaction modality is based on direct physical interaction requiring the human user to push the robot in order to displace it. The second and third interaction modalities exploit a 3-D vision-based human-skeleton tracking allowing the user to guide the robot by either walking in front of it or by pointing toward a desired location. In the first task, the participants were asked to guide the robot between different rooms in a simulated physical apartment requiring rough movement of the robot through designated areas. The second task evaluated robot guidance in the same environment through a set of waypoints, which required accurate movements. The three interaction modalities were implemented on a generic differential drive mobile platform equipped with a pan-tilt system and a Kinect camera. Task completion time and accuracy were used as metrics to assess the users' performance, while the NASA-TLX questionnaire was used to evaluate the users' workload. A study with 24 participants indicated that choice of interaction modality had significant effect on completion time (F(2,61) = 84.874, p < 0.001), accuracy (F(2,29) = 4.937, p = 0.016), and workload (F(2,68) = 11.948, p < 0.001). The direct physical interaction required less time, provided more accuracy and less workload than the two contactless interaction modalities. Between the two contactless interaction modalities, the person-following interaction modality was systematically better than the pointing-control one: The participants completed the tasks faster with less workload. ; This research was supported by the EU-funded Initial Training Network (ITN) in the Marie-Curie People Programme (FP7): INTRO (INTeractive RObotics research network), grant agreement no. 238486, and partially supported by the Helmsley Charitable Trust through the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics Initiative and by the Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut Chair in Manufacturing Engineering, both at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the Beatriu de Pinós grant no. 2013 BP-B 00239 of the Catalan Government and the EU-funded Marie Curie Actions COFUND programme. ; Peer Reviewed

Objective: In this study, we aimed to demonstrate analysis methods that are sensitive to speed-related differences between experienced and young novice drivers. These differences may be linked to determining which group is better at anticipating hazards. Background: Awareness of hazardous situations, especially potential ones, is a major discriminator between experienced and young novice drivers who tend to misidentify potential hazards in the traffic environment. Method: Experienced and young novice drivers were asked to drive a sequence of 14 scenarios in a driving simulator. Scenarios were created in two city areas, residential and business district, and included various types of hazards. Group homogeneity of speed for each group of drivers was computed for each scenario, and two business district scenarios were subjected to piecewise linear regression analysis. Results: Group homogeneity analysis showed consistent and significant experience-based differences across all scenarios, revealing that the experienced drivers as a group were more homogenous in choosing their driving speed. Differences between groups were larger in the business district where speed was less restricted. Piecewise linear regression analysis revealed that experienced drivers approached uncontrolled intersections by slowing down and responded earlier to materialized events. Conclusion: Young novice drivers were more likely than experienced drivers to choose diverse values of speed at any given road section, presumably due to their poor awareness of potential and hidden hazards. Unlike other analysis methods, it is argued that group homogeneity of speed is a more sensitive measurement to reveal these gaps. Application: Speed management could be the basis of future hazard anticipation simulator assessments.

Background: Alerts in the cockpit must be robust, difficult to ignore, and easily recognized. Tactile alerts can provide means to direct the pilot's attention in the already visual-auditory overloaded cockpit environment.Objective: This research examined the thigh as a placement for vibrotactile display in the cockpit. The authors (a) report initial findings concerning the loci and properties of the display, (b) evaluate the added value of tactile cuing with respect to the existing audio-visual alerting system, and (c) address the issue of tactile orienting—whether the cue should display "flight" or "fight" orienting. The tactor display prototype was developed by a joint venture of Israel Aerospace Industries, Lahav Division, and the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (patent pending 11/968,405).Method: A vibrotactile display mounted on the thigh provided directional cues in the vertical plane. Two vibrotactile display modes (eight and four tactors) and two response modes (compatible, i.e., fight [toward vibrotactile cue], and inverse, i.e., flight [away from vibrotactile cue]) were evaluated.Results: Vertical directional orienting can be achieved by a vibrotactile display assembled on the thigh. The four-tactor display mode and the compatible response mode produced more accurate results.Conclusion: Tactile cues can provide directional orienting in the vertical plane. The benefit of adding compatible tactile cues compared with visual and auditory cues alone has yet to be reinforced. Nevertheless, fight mode, that is, directing the way to escape from hazardous situations, was preferred.Application: Potential applications include providing directional collision alerts within the vertical plane, assisting pilot's elevation control, or navigation.

Objective:To explore cognitive strategies clinicians apply while performing a medication reconciliation task, handling incomplete and conflicting information.Background:Medication reconciliation is a method clinicians apply to find and resolve inconsistencies in patients' medications and medical conditions lists. The cognitive strategies clinicians use during reconciliation are unclear. Controlled lab experiments can explore how clinicians make sense of uncertain, missing, or conflicting information and therefore support the development of a human performance model. We hypothesize that clinicians apply varied cognitive strategies to handle this task and that profession and experience affect these strategies.Method:130 clinicians participated in a tablet-based experiment conducted in a large American teaching hospital. They were asked to simulate medication reconciliation using a card sorting task (CaST) to organize medication and medical condition lists of a specific clinical case. Later on, they were presented with new information and were asked to add it to their arrangements. We quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed the ways clinicians arranged patient information.Results:Four distinct cognitive strategies were identified ("Conditions first": n = 76 clinicians, "Medications first": n = 7, "Crossover": n = 17, and "Alternating": n = 10). The strategy clinicians applied was affected by their experience ( p = .02) but not by their profession. At the appearance of new information, clinicians moved medication cards more frequently (75.2 movements vs. 49.6 movements, p < .001), suggesting that they match medications to medical conditions.Conclusion:Clinicians apply various cognitive strategies while reconciling medications and medical conditions.Application:Clinical information systems should support multiple cognitive strategies, allowing flexibility in organizing information.