Factors Affecting User Response to Polygon Displays

Abstract

The concept of polygon displays as error detection devices is a recent area of interest in such environments as nuclear power plants and airplane and helicopter cockpits. Operators in these areas are concerned about the flooding of important information upon the limited capacity of the human eye and brain. A polygon display may alleviate the problem of confusing information by encompassing many fault displays into one simple, symmetric display. This type of visual display is an optimal method for “at a glance” scanning and lower order perception. If a problem arises in the relevant system, the vertex that corresponds to the fault location will become skewed, and the polygon will appear irregular. The authors propose that polygon displays of different sizes and types will elicit varying reaction times of the detection of faults in these displays. A pilot study was conducted to determine preliminary answers to this query.