Tactile and Aural Alerts in High Auditory Load UAV Control Environments

Abstract

Tactile displays may alleviate visual workload in complex UAV control stations, cueing operators to high priority events via the haptic channel. Previous results suggest that tactile alerts (vibration on wrists) can substitute for aural alerts, as a redundant cue to visual alerts in relatively short test sessions. The present experiment investigated whether tactile alerts are advantageous in high auditory loads during longer periods of vigilance. Participants responded to events alerted via aural or tactile redundant cues, while performing multiple tasks in a simulated UAV control station. Results did not show an advantage of tactile over aural alerts in high auditory loads over 30-minute periods. Despite the lack of performance advantage of tactile alerts over aural alerts, research participants favored the tactile alerts, rating them as more salient and faster in attracting their attention.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bolia

R.S.

Nelson

W.T.

Ericson

M.A.

Simpson

B.D.

(2000). A speech corpus for multitalker communications research. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107(2), 1065–1066.

Calhoun

G.L.

Fontejon

J.V.

Draper

M.H.

Ruff

H.A.

Guilfoos

(2004). Tactile versus aural redundant alert cues for UAV control applications. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Craig

J.C.

Sherrick

C.E.

(1982). Dynamic tactile displays. In Schiff

Foulke

(Eds.) Tactual perception: A sourcebook (pp. 210–233), Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Galinsky

T.L.

Rosa

R.R.

Warm

J.S.

Dember

W.N.

(1993). Psychophysical determinants of stress in sustained attention. Human Factors, 35(4), 603–614.

Hopp

P.J.

Smith

C.A.P.

Clegg

B.A.

Heggestad

E.D.

(2005). Interruption management: The use of attention directing tactile cues. Human Factors, 47(1), 1–11.

Jones

F.N.

(1974). Overview of psychophysical scaling methods. In Carterette

E.C.

Friedman

M.P.

(Ed.) Handbook of perception II: Psychophysical judgment and measurement, (pp. 1–11), Academic Press.

Sklar

A.E.

Sarter

N.B.

(1999). Good vibrations: Tactile feedback in support of attention allocation and human-automation in event-driven domains. Human Factors, 41(4), 543–552.

van Erp

J.B.F.

(2002). Guideline for the use of vibrotactile displays in human computer interaction. 2002 EuroHaptics.

van Veen

van Erp

(2003). Tactile information presentation in the cockpit. Proceedings of the Haptic Human-Computer Interaction Workshop, University of Glasgow, 50–53.