Search

Our paper discusses the role of human body in the design practice, drawing from cognitive science contributions. we discuss the role of the bodily dimension in design projects starting from Norman’s seminal book on Emotional Design, to then review the most recent research on embodied cognition. We conclude by discussing two implications for design, concerning the role of embodied knowledge and the importance of designing for diversity.

Human operators play a key role in the safe and successful conduct of maritime and aviation transport operations. Human error is often reported as a contributor to maritime and aviation accidents. Therefore, the implementation of human-informed design considerations is essential to improve safety and operational performance in both sectors, especially in the maritime sector, where there is a lack of an established framework to systematically consider human factors at the design stage. Therefore, the SAFEMODE project brings together key experts from both aviation and maritime sectors to address this important gap. The SAFEMODE project aims to deliver a framework that includes human factors considerations and enables designers to make risk-informed decisions. The methodological approach of SAFEMODE builds upon four areas: the collection and analysis of accident data; the development of a toolkit for human performance assurance, the development of Human Factors-based risk models and the creation of a framework to support risk-informed design. The type of safety events considered in SAFEMODE for both domains includes collision and grounding for the maritime sector, and runway collision, taxiway collision and wake vortex during en-route flight phase for the aviation sector. This paper will provide an insight into the efforts conducted as part of the SAFEMODE project to assess the human contribution to risk and the benefits of applying these models to support risk-informed decisions in design and operations.

The growing diffusion of fashion e-commerce websites shows the appreciation by users, highlighting the importance of offering this service also to users with different disabilities. To this end, e-commerce should be not only accessible - implementing all the technical requirements for accessibility - but also usable, paying attention to the offered user experience.

Several models defining different types of cognitive human behaviour are available. For this work, we have selected the Skill, Rule and Knowledge (SRK) model proposed by Rasmussen in 1983. This model is currently broadly used in safety critical domains, such as the aviation. Nowadays, there are no tools able to assess at which level of cognitive control the operator is dealing with the considered task, that is if he/she is performing the task as an automated routine (skill level), as procedures-based activity (rule level), or as a problem-solving process (knowledge level). Several studies tried to model the SRK behaviours from a Human Factor perspective. Despite such studies, there are no evidences in which such behaviours have been evaluated from a neurophysiological point of view, for example, by considering brain activity variations across the different SRK levels. Therefore, the proposed study aimed to investigate the use of neurophysiological signals to assess the cognitive control behaviours accordingly to the SRK taxonomy. The results of the study, performed on 37 professional Air Traffic Controllers, demonstrated that specific brain features could characterize and discriminate the different SRK levels, therefore enabling an objective assessment of the degree of cognitive control behaviours in realistic settings.

International audience; We investigated the contribution of specific HCI concepts to provide multimodal information to Air Traffic Controlers in the context of Remote Control Towers (i.e. when an airport is controlled from a distant location). We considered interactive spatial sound, tactile stimulation and body movements to design four different interaction and feedback modalities. Each of these modalities have been designed to provide specific solutions to typical Air Traffic Control identified use cases. Sixteen professional Air Traffic Controllers (ATCos) participated in the experiment, which was structured in four distinct scenarios. ATCos were immersed in an ecological setup, in which they were asked to control (i) one airport without augmentations modalities, (ii) two airports without augmentations, (iii) one airport with augmentations and (iv) two airports with augmentations. These experimental conditions constituted the four distinct experimental scenarios. Behavioral results shown a significant increase in overall participants’ performance when augmentation modalities were activated in remote control tower operations for one airport.

International audience; This article provides the reader a focused and organised review of the research progresses on neurophysiological indicators, also called “neurometrics”, to show how neurometrics could effectively address some of the most important Human Factors (HFs) needs in the Air Traffic Management (ATM) field. The state of the art on the most involved HFs and related cognitive processes (e.g. mental workload, cognitive training) is presented together with examples of possible applications in the current and future ATM scenarios, in order to better understand and highlight the available opportunities of such neuroscientific applications. Furthermore, the paper will discuss the potential enhancement that further research and development activities could bring to the efficiency and safety of the ATM service.

I recenti sviluppi nelle scienze cognitive hanno messo in luce l’importanza del corpo umano come strumento di conoscenza. La conoscenza embodied e di natura senso-motoria, e nel corpo e nel coordinamento tra percezione e azione. L’approccio della embodied cognition e importante per comprendere la natura della conoscenza utilizzata in mestieri quali il designer o l’artigiano, dove la conoscenza non e di natura esclusivamente simbolica, ma senso-motoria, pratica, manipolativa. Si tratta di attivita in cui il corpo gioca un ruolo fondamentale. Gli studi sull’embodied cognition aiutano a capire quale sia la natura della conoscenza degli artigiani e dei designer e quali possano essere le forme e i tempi dell’apprendimento per questo tipo di conoscenza. La conoscenza dell’artigiano e del designer e infatti prevalentemente tacita, nel senso di embodied, e si sviluppa, con tempi molto lunghi, nella pratica. Richiede attivita in cui i designers devono prestare attenzione ad elementi quali il colore, la forma, la texture, e cosi via, per affinare le loro capacita senso-motorie di precisione e l’acuita visiva rispetto ai dettagli. Richiede inoltre una costante interazione con una comunita di riferimento, per ricevere un feedback costante rispetto alla qualita dei risultati raggiunti. La pratica del design e un processo sociale, di interazione con i pari, con un "maestro", o con i clienti/utenti. Si apprende spesso per imitazione, magari guidata, al fine di sviluppare una capacita di percezione e manipolazione dei dettagli non trasmissibile a parole. Questo tipo di conoscenza riguarda il design inteso come forma d’arte, come forma alta di artigianato. Ma dall’altro lato il design e anche un approccio al progetto, che puo riguardare aspetti materiali o digitali. E la forma del design tipica di discipline quali l’interazione uomo-macchina o i fattori umani. Recentemente, questo tipo di design ha assunto un posizionamento ancor piu "di alto livello", strategico. Si tratta del design thinking, dove l’attivita cruciale del designer e l’impostazione del progetto. Ad oggi entrambe le declinazioni del design sono rilevanti. La sfida attuale e nel perseguire una (difficile) sintesi tra la lentezza dell’apprendimento embodied, tacito, attento ai particolari, e la visione di alto livello del design strategico, dove i designer devono innanzitutto scegliere quali problemi affrontare per definire la vision di lungo periodo, il quadro di riferimento in cui muoversi.

International audience; The present study aims at investigating the contribution of multimodal modalities to the context of Remote Towers. Interactive spatial sound and vibrotactile feedback were used to design 4 different types of interaction and feedback, responding to 4 typical Air Traffic Control use cases. The experiment involved 16 professional Air Traffic Controllers, who have been called to manage 4 different ATC scenarios into ecological experimental conditions. In two of the scenarios, participants had to control only one airport (i.e., Single Remote Tower context), while in the other two scenarios participants had to control simultaneously two airports (i.e., Multiple Remote Tower context). The augmentation modalities were activated or not in a balanced way. Behavioral results highlighted a significant increase in overall participants performance when the augmentation modalities were activated in Single Remote Tower context. This work demonstrates that some types of augmentation modalities can be used into Remote Tower context.

Car driving is considered a very complex activity, consisting of different main tasks and subtasks. For this reason, in particular situations the cognitive demand on the driver can be very high, and this large mental workload decreases performance and increases the probability of error commission. In this preliminary study a workload index based on electroencephalography (EEG), i.e., brain activity of eight drivers in real traffic conditions, is validated. In particular, by means of this objective workload index it has been possible to classify correctly, with accuracy higher than 75%, two driving conditions that differ in terms of difficulty, i.e., easy and hard. Eye-tracking technology was employed to validate EEG-based results. This EEG-based workload index could allow researchers to assess objectively, and even online, the mental workload experienced by drivers, and it thus forms a powerful tool for neuroergonomics research.

International audience; This study aims at investigating the possibility to employ neurophysiological measures to assess the human - machine interaction effectiveness . Such a measure can be used to compare new technologies or solutions, with the final purpose to enhance operator’s experience and increase safety. I n the present work, two different interaction modalities (Normal and Augmented) related to Air Traffic Management field have been compared , by involving 10 professional air traffic controllers in a control tower simulated environment . Experimental task consisted in locating aircrafts in different airspace positions by using the sense of hearing. In one modality (i.e. “Normal”), all the sound sources (aircraft s ) had the same amplification factor . I n the “Augmented” modality , the amplification factor of the sound sources located al ong the participant head sagittal axis was increased, while the intensity of sound sources located outside this axis decreased . In other words, when the user oriented his head toward the aircraft position, the related sound was amplified. Performance data , subjective questionnaires (i.e. NASA - TLX) and neurophysiological measures (i.e. EEG - based) related to the experienced workload have been collected. Results showed higher significant performance achieved by the users during the “Augmented” modality with respect to the “Normal” one, supported by a significant decreasing in experienced workload, evaluated by using EEG - based index. In addition, Performance and EEG - based workload index showed a significant negative correlation. On the contrary , subjective workload analysis did not show any significant trend. This result is a demonstration of the higher effectiveness of neurophysiological measures with respect to subjective ones for Human - Computer Interaction assessment.

This contribution offers a critical reflection on standard reactive incident reporting systems and provides an outlook towards proactive methods for monitoring risk. Incident reporting systems are often regarded as a prerequisite for effective resilience engineering, but sometimes they fail to achieve much of the expected benefits. There is now a growing body of research that criticizes incident reporting on the basis of its inability to provide an accurate representation of harm compared to other methods as well as the fact that there is still widespread underreporting of incidents. In this chapter we take a different angle by arguing that the problems encountered with incident reporting are at least to some extent to be found in the structural characteristics of the respective domains rather than within either the principle of incident reporting as such or its implementation. We identify a number of such structural characteristics that are necessary for successful incident reporting through reflection on the success and the (partial) failure of two major incident reporting systems from aviation and healthcare. Where those structural characteristics are not present, incident reporting systems are bound to encounter difficulties. In such environments, a complementary proactive risk monitoring approach may be required to maximize learning from operator and frontline feedback.

Interventions to reduce risk often have an associated cost. In UK industries decisions about risk reduction are made and justified within a shared regulatory framework that requires that risk be reduced as low as reasonably practicable. In health care no such regulatory framework exists, and the practice of making decisions about risk reduction is varied and lacks transparency. Can health care organisations learn from relevant industry experiences about making and justifying risk reduction decisions? This paper presents lessons from a qualitative study undertaken with 21 participants from five industries about how such decisions are made and justified in UK industry. Recommendations were developed based on a consensus development exercise undertaken with 20 health care stakeholders. The paper argues that there is a need in health care to develop a regulatory framework and an agreed process for managing explicitly the trade-off between risk reduction and cost. The framework should include guidance about a health care specific notion of acceptable levels of risk, guidance about standardised risk reduction interventions, it should include regulatory incentives for health care organisations to reduce risk, and it should encourage the adoption of an approach for documenting explicitly an organisation's risk position.

Healthcare organisations are often encouraged to learn from other industries in order to develop proactive and rigorous safety management practices. In the UK safety–critical industries safety cases have been used to provide justification that systems are acceptably safe. There has been growing interest in healthcare in the application of safety cases for medical devices and health information technology. However, the introduction of safety cases into general safety management and regulatory practices in healthcare is largely unexplored and unsupported. Should healthcare as an industry be encouraged to adopt safety cases more widely? This paper reviews safety case practices in six UK industries and identifies drivers and developments in the adoption of safety cases. The paper argues that safety cases might best be used in healthcare to provide an exposition of risk rather than as a regulatory tool to demonstrate acceptable levels of safety. Safety cases might support healthcare organisations in establishing proactive safety management practices. However, there has been criticism that safety cases practices have, at times, contributed to poor safety management and standards by prompting a “tick-box” and compliance-driven approach. These criticisms represent challenges for the adoption of safety cases in healthcare, where the level of maturity of safety management systems is arguably still lower than in traditional safety–critical industries. Healthcare stakeholders require access to education and guidance that takes into account the specifics of healthcare as an industry. Further research is required to provide evidence about the effectiveness of safety cases and the costs involved with the approach.

In the last decades, it has been a fast-growing concept in the neuroscience field. The passive brain-computer interface (p-BCI) systems allow to improve the human-machine interaction (HMI) in operational environments, by using the covert brain activity (eg, mental workload) of the operator. However, p-BCI technology could suffer from some practical issues when used outside the laboratories. In particular, one of the most important limitations is the necessity to recalibrate the p-BCI system each time before its use, to avoid a significant reduction of its reliability in the detection of the considered mental states. The objective of the proposed study was to provide an example of p-BCIs used to evaluate the users' mental workload in a real operational environment. For this purpose, through the facilities provided by the Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile of Toulouse (France), the cerebral activity of 12 professional air traffic control officers (ATCOs) has been recorded while performing high realistic air traffic management scenarios. By the analysis of the ATCOs' brain activity (electroencephalographic signal-EEG) and the subjective workload perception (instantaneous self-assessment) provided by both the examined ATCOs and external air traffic control experts, it has been possible to estimate and evaluate the variation of the mental workload under which the controllers were operating. The results showed (i) a high significant correlation between the neurophysiological and the subjective workload assessment, and (ii) a high reliability over time (up to a month) of the proposed algorithm that was also able to maintain high discrimination accuracies by using a low number of EEG electrodes (~3 EEG channels). In conclusion, the proposed methodology demonstrated the suitability of p-BCI systems in operational environments and the advantages of the neurophysiological measures with respect to the subjective ones.