The Daily Human Factor

The Future of our Field (Human System Integration)

2011-05-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

Interesting topic piece, accompanied by a video as well, by Don Norman on what is needed in our field - Human System Integration. Not the death of academia, but perhaps a changing of the times. A little bit of practicality won't hurt anyone.

HF article in Military & Aerospace Magazine

2011-03-09T18:25:00.000-08:00

January 2011 article in Military & Aerospace Magazine:
http://www.militaryaerospace.com/index/display/article-display/6345266776/articles/military-aerospace-electronics/volume-22/issue-1/special-report/human-factors-drive-avionics-designs-synthetic-vision.html

Noted that currently pilots are using trackball with the flight management system (FMS)but are inquiring when the touch-screen capability will be available.  (Article predicting ~15-20 years for major development in the flight deck; concept
to include the development of a single pilot flight deck.)

Information Overload

2011-02-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

A recent article in the New York Times talks about information overload for military personnel, and the impact it has on their ability to perform jobs. More importantly though, it cites work being done by my advisor. No brainer, cool work and cool dude, a must read.

Driving and the Rise of Gadgets

2011-02-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

Whoa boy, is the future going to be awesome. I want to stick around for several reasons. Firstly, death not so cool. Second, I have a kid now, and darn curious what he will be like when he grows up. Third, because I have no clue about what we will driving (if we, and not some software, are still driving), and more interestingly what will be inside those cars. A battle is growing between want we want in our cars, and what we can handle. Many media sites are increasing talking about this matter, and NPR recently ran a story about it too - Can Drivers Handle More Gadgets? Experts Say 'No'. Check it out, but please, not while your driving.

Is Technology Wiring Teens to Have Better Brains?

2011-01-31T03:11:00.000-08:00

PBS News Hour research segment on the impact of media (VG) on young people's brains e.g.,task switching.

Multi-Gesture

2011-01-31T03:07:00.000-08:00

Touch screens are increasing used by people. Bill Buxton has a great historical overview of the gestures that are used with multi-touch screens.

Video Games

2011-01-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

A recent post from a DoD science blog discuss the benefits of playing video games.

Adults Benefit from Playing Video Games - Think interactive video games are a waste of time or more suited for children? Think again. Research by the Office of Naval Research indicates that video games can help adults process information much faster and improve their abilities to reason and solve problems. This blog post covered one of our most popular podcasts of the year.
http://science.dodlive.mil/2011/01/

Security Book

2010-12-24T09:40:00.000-08:00

Announcing a new book,"Enhancing Human Performance in Security
Operations: International and Law Enforcement Perspectives," co-edited
by Paul Bartone, Bjorn Helge Johnsen, Jarle Eid, John Violanti and Jon
Christian Laberg. This book focuses on international military and law
enforcement perspectives on how to better train and prepare workers to
perform effectively in security operations. 

http://www.amazon.com/Enhancing-Human-Performance-Security-Operations/dp/039807951X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291662638&sr=1-1

Fewer Sailors Erode Readiness, Cut Ship Life

2010-06-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

I couldn't find the link for this article. So, I am submitting the posting I received below.

By PHILIP EWING
Published: 21 June 2010 Print | Email
An independent probe into the state of the U.S. Navy's surface force has found widespread, systemic dysfunction in its manning, readiness and training, and repudiates much of the service's high-level decision-making in the last decade.

The report - commissioned by Adm. John Harvey, the Fleet Forces commander, and produced by a seven-member panel led by retired Vice Adm. Phillip Balisle that included two serving rear admirals - warns that unless the Navy mends its ways, it will continue to see surface ships condemned in inspections and sail unready to fight.

Although sailors and Navy observers have pointed before to many of the problems and trends that Balisle's "fleet review panel" uncovered, the report provides the clearest, most detailed look yet at how a preoccupation with saving money drove the surface Navy to a low point.

"It appears the effort to derive efficiencies has overtaken our culture of effectiveness," the Balisle report says. "The material readiness of the surface force is well below acceptable levels to support reliable, sustained operations at sea and preserve ships to their full service life expectancy. Moreover, the present readiness trends are down."

How did it happen? Driven by top-level pressure to be as efficient as possible, Navy leaders in the early 2000s made a series of interrelated decisions to cut sailors, reform training, "streamline" fleet maintenance and take other steps in keeping with the philosophy then en vogue of "running the Navy like a business."

The fleet organized itself into layers of "enterprises," which thickened already legendary layers of military bureaucracy and made command relationships difficult to understand, the panel found.

At the time, every commander assumed what his colleagues were doing would make up for what he was doing in his own area: For example, as the fleets reduced the number of people aboard ships, they expected incoming sailors to be so well prepared by the simultaneous "revolution in training" that every young new expert could take the place of many previous journeymen. As it happened, the "revolution" trained sailors by computer, and many of them arrived at their first ships never having touched the equipment they were to operate. Ships began to fall into bad shape.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said that the move to "optimal manning" made practical sense earlier this decade, but "changes to the structure ashore, changes in some of the oversight functions" have come to hurt ships' ability to train, do maintenance and fight.

Between 1994 and 1999, about 3.5 percent of ships failed inspections by the Board of Inspection and Survey, Balisle's commission found. From 2005 to 2009, almost 14 percent of ships failed. Not only does this hurt the fleet of today, it means the Navy can't keep around the ships it says are vital to building its hoped-for fleet of at least 313.

"Independent reports indicate that if the surface force stays on the course that it is presently on, DDGs will achieve 25-27 years of service life instead of the 30 years planned and 40 years of extended service life desired," the report says.

Even the highest-profile and most vital system aboard the Navy's front-line warships - Aegis - fails much more often than panel members expected; technical problems with cruisers' and destroyers' SPY-1 radars have gone up by 45 percent since 2004, the report said. But because of smaller crews, poor training and the complicated bureaucracy of getting repairs or replacement parts, many ships sail while "consciously accepting degradation."

"Technicians can't get the money to buy spare parts," according to the report. "They haven't been trained to the requirement. They can't go to their supervisor because, in the case of the [destroyers], they likely are the supervisor. They can't repair the radar through no fault of their own, but over time, the non-responsiveness of the Navy system, the acceptance of the SPY degradation by the Navy system and their seniors, officers and chiefs alike, will breed (if not already) a culture that tolerates poor system performance:. Sailors are losing their sense of ownership of their equipment and are more apt to want others to fix it."

The panel found other examples of how it says the fleet tolerates mediocrity, including low levels of technical skill: "[I]t appears that a significant portion of the surface force is lacking in [personal qualifications], and this in turn suggests that many of our ships' leaders are at worst not dedicated to training their sailors, or, more likely, simply are more tolerant of non-completion. Recent incident reports wherein non-qualified watch standers made critical errors tend to provide further confirmation."

These trends, combined with a longstanding surface culture to "get underway at all costs," put ships in danger because they set sail even if they're not ready, the report said.

Although it doesn't mention incidents by name, the report's description gibes with several high-profile mishaps, including the 2009 grounding of the cruiser Port Royal off Honolulu and a March buoy strike by the destroyer The Sullivans off Bahrain. Inexperienced watch-standers and broken equipment helped contribute to both those accidents, each of which resulted in the firing of the ship's commanding officer.

Balisle, now a top executive with DRS Technologies, headed the Naval Sea Systems Command until his retirement in 2005. He declined to comment on his report through a spokesman.

Capt. Cate Mueller, a spokeswoman for Fleet Forces Command, said Balisle's report didn't tell the Navy anything it didn't already know.

"Fleet leaders, based upon their own prior analysis, believed that many of the problems that the panel subsequently identified - including manning shortfalls, inadequate shipboard and shore maintenance, and insufficient training - were taking a toll on surface force readiness," she said. "In that regard, the fleet review panel confirmed, in context and in detail, what fleet leaders had suspected."

She also reaffirmed what senior Navy leaders have hinted for the past few months: They're swinging the pendulum in the other direction by looking to increase crew sizes, improve training and re-teach the fleet to maintain its ships and equipment.

But Mueller would not comment on specific recommendations in Balisle's report, including precise numbers for how many sailors the panel thinks the Navy needs: 4,496 new sea billets and 2,028 shore and maintenance billets, for a total of 6,524 new billets. Those numbers are based on an overall recommendation that surface ships be automatically manned at 110 percent over their base level, to account for the roughly 8 percent effective loss of crew the committee discovered across the board.

Mueller would only concede that "it's safe to say that the intent is to shift billets from shore to sea ... except those being shifted into shore maintenance billets from other shore billets."

The Balisle report also recommends fleet commanders impose "red lines" below which ships can't fall and still get underway. For example, a ship just emerging from a long period in the yard would need to be certified by Naval Surface Forces to ensure it had qualified sailors and working equipment to be able to operate safely.

Port Royal went to sea on the first day after a four-month yard period, but its commanding officer wasn't qualified and much of its critical navigation gear wasn't working. Moreover, the ship's watch-standers weren't confident about where exactly it was, all of which contributed to the ship getting stuck on a coral reef for four days just off Honolulu Airport, heavily damaging the Aegis cruiser.

What is a Human Factors Professional?

2010-05-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

I recently heard about the possibility to become a Certified Usability Analysts, and it got me thinking about the following question. What is required to call yourself a Human Factors Professional? Do you need a four year degree, a masters, PhD, on-job training, or a certificate. I don't really have an answer, yet, but I am curious what other certificates are out there related to human factors. I know of one other, Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics.

An Argument for Human Factors

2010-05-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

The 1994 landmark study by The Standish Group on why Information Technology (IT) projects failure showed that a staggering 31.1% of projects are cancelled before they are completed, and for those projects completed 52.7% of them will cost 189% of their original estimates. Conversely, only 16.2% software projects are completed on-time and on-budget. A primary reason for the success or failure of IT projects is user involvement – or lack there of. If you have some time, I would check it out. The study is often cited within the computer science field, but I don't see it as much in the world of Human Factors. Even though it directly applies to our work.

Campaigning to curb distracted driving

2010-04-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

The fight against distracted driving is really gaining momentum now. Today, the Today show featured Oprah's national No Phone Zone campaign and Meredith Vieira crashed in their mobile driving simulator while reaching for a cell phone. It was quite a demonstration and even ended with Meredith expressing her surprise using a curse word. Most of us will laugh Meredith nearly hitting the car ahead when distracted, we certainly all understand that the potential impact of distractions on driving in real life are not as humorous.

Technology-based interventions and mitigation strategies such as hands-free devices or speech interfaces have made some headway at helping reduce the potential effects of distraction on the roadway. These technologies have a long way to go and certainly do not address the primary concern, a distraction, regardless of difficulty, will always detract from driving performance to some degree even if it is only cognitive. So while we can make it easier for people to engage in other activities while driving, our best bet for driver safety is to get rid of it all together.

Legislation has been the primary method of removing distractions from the roadway, but most only address hand held activities such as dialing/holding a phone and texting. Additionally, these types of laws are difficult to enforce and there is evidence that they have had little impact on traffic crash rates. So if we can't effectively outlaw distraction, how should we proceed?

National campaigns such as Oprah's No Phone Zone, Distraction.gov, and grass root organizations such as Focus Driven have the potential to raise awareness about the safety impact of distracted driving and create a safety driven driving culture that will not stand for distracted drivers. Similar to seat belts, if we as a nation do not stand for distracted driving and oppose this activity then I believe that distractions will become less of an issue.

Unfortunately, I see two major roadblocks. First, the increase in availability and demand for mobile technology. Our culture is increasingly seeking ways to remain connected and this includes while driving. The problem with constant connectivity is that drivers will always have the option to seek information from activities other than driving. Additionally, people may be expected to remain connected all the time for work or family purposes, and feel compelled to be accessible at all times no matter what they are currently doing.

A second road block and one that is of greater concern is the automotive industry's desire to give their consumers everything they want and not everything they need. Everything they want in that consumers what all the latest and greatest technology, including both safety (e.g., collision warning systems) and entertainment (e.g., infotainment). I find it ironic that today GM is encouraging employees to take Oprah's "No Phone Zone Day" pledge, yet produce a vehicle that offers a number of different ways to interact with mobile technology while driving (article).

Of course I don't think auto manufacters should strip out anything that wasn't critical for driving from the vehicle. Nor do I think we should all rebel against connectivity and mobile technology. I would just want to acknowledge the difficult dilemma the industry and all of us face with distracted driving. We want vehicles that are safe and reliable and at the same time require that they are fun to drive and provide us entertainment when driving isn't entertaining enough.

Voice controlled interfaces aren't distracting.....or are they?

2010-04-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine sent me an article today describing a new study that found voice controlled interfaces, specifically Ford Sync, significantly helps drivers keep their eyes on the roadway. The benefit of keeping drivers eyes on the roadway during distracting activities is, as VTTI argues, that it reduces crash risk. Interestingly, a number of laboratory and simulator experiments have found that while voice interfaces help keep drivers eyes on the roadway it still does not eliminate impairments observed in driving performance. In-lab results have led researchers to argue that distractions interfere with basic cognitive processes in addition to competing for visual or manual resources. Thus, if you remove competition for peripheral resources (visual and manual) as voice controlled interfaces do there still remains some degree of impairment related to competition for cognitive resources. However, naturalistic studies of driver distraction have repeatedly failed to replicate this result as described in the article. In fact, some studies have found a protective effect of distracting activities on crash risk (recent VTTI study of truck drivers). This begs the question, why the disparity? What differences between these two experimental settings has led to completely different findings? Could it be that drivers employ strategies to handle distractions in naturalistic settings that they do not use in controlled, laboratory settings? Further research is needed to identify the cause of this disparity, but for now I am glad to see that automobile manufacturers are starting to really push technologies aimed at mitigating the effects of driver distraction.

Department of Defense Ergonomics

2010-04-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

If you enjoyed the recent post on office ergonomics, you can find additional materials at theDepartment of Defense Ergonomics Site.

Ergonomics for the office worker

2010-04-07T06:12:00.000-07:00

Considering that a number of us spend most of our day sitting in front of a computer, I wanted to share an article with our readers that provides some tips (and potentially helpful reminders) on how we can improve body posture and office space ergonomics to improve our well being. We would be interested to hear people's experiences if they currently practice some of these suggestions or their success stories if they try some out after reading the article. Enjoy the article!

Nexus One vs. iPhone 3G

2010-03-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this graphic comparing the nexus one and iPhone 3G. It is a great comparison graphic for those undecided between the iPhone and Nexus One. One comparison, battery replacement, I found to be very interesting for two reasons. First, when you see stats regarding cell phone performance you don't typically see the number of steps involved in battery replacement. So, for me this is a pretty novel stats to included. The second reasons I found it to be very interesting is because of the huge difference between the iPhone 3G and Nexus One. The iPhone 3G takes 19 steps to replace the battery, the Nexus One only 2. Check it out for yourself, I currently own an iPhone, but I might need to reconsider.

Medical Errors and Prevention

2010-03-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

I recently came across an article that might be of interest to our readers on a blog maintained by Ashley Jones entitled 12 Most Common Medical Errors (And How to Prevent Them). If you get a chance give it a read. Here is the LINK.

Billboards: Weapons of Mass Distraction?

2010-03-04T04:31:00.000-08:00

An article in the New York Times, titled Digital Billboards, Diversions Drivers Can’t Escape describes the challenges associated with digital billboards and the concern that they might be distracting drivers on the road. Interesting idea, but I am not sure if there is much research to back up the claim.

Challenges with the Supervision of Unmanned Systems

2010-02-25T07:06:00.000-08:00

Two recent articles highlight the challenges associated with the supervision of unmanned systems. The first, Shifting Sailors' Workload to Robots, discusses the ongoing question of: How many people it takes to operate an unmanned system? The second article, Unmanned Limits, highlights the issues when only robotic systems are used, and why they can't completely replace a manned system.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Public Hearing on Metro Crash

2010-02-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

Today is the final day of The National Transportation Safety Board hearing on the Metro Crash. A 3-day public hearing was held to gather additional factual information for the ongoing investigation into the collision of two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail Red Line trains on June 22, 2009. If you have a chance you might want to check it out. If you don't have much time you may just want to look over the Exhibit Items Presented at the Public Hearing and the Entire Public Docket.

HFES Media

2010-02-12T04:31:00.000-08:00

A couple of interesting media items related to Human Factors. First, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society provides the Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science these are videos produced for local English and Spanish TV newscasts all over the US. And of course for HFES members!

Second, a friend of my was recently interviewed for the work he does as a scientific advisor to the writers of Fringe. Check out the video at ScriptPhd.

Radiation Overdose Update

2010-02-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

I received this article update, regarding the radiation overdose incident the New York Times reported on. The article, "Professional radiation organization calls for new safety protocols" indicates the creation of a database to report errors in conjunction with linear accelerators and CT scanners. What I don't understand is why they don't create a database to report any medical errors. The aviation community has the Aviation Safety Reporting System a database that allows pilots and other airplane crew members to confidentially report near misses and close calls in the interest of improving air safety. It would be great if the medical community could implement a similar type of safety measure.

Work Closed - Only if you look for it.

2010-02-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

Although, the Federal Government has closed for the past couple of days (due to the snow storms), my work has remained open. Until today! However, when checking the base website status yesterday, it took me a minute or so to realize the base was closed. My work colleague indicated that he checked the website several times before realizing the base closure. Check over the image I took of the base status website, and see if you can identify the issue.

The screen shot shows that the place where the base status information is provided doesn't indicated the base is closed. However, if you look above the Dahlgren Site Status or at to the right side of the website within the Special Note box you will notice that a message indicates the base is closed. Why the didn't provide this information at the base status location is a little confusing to me; perhaps you found it confusing as well!

Book on Medical Errors

2010-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

Errors are a part of life, right? What about having the wrong leg removed; or performing the wrong medical procedure. Sure, it seems like those situations are isolated events. However, the book, "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System" provides lots of evidence for why we should be more on guard with our health care.

Check it out if you have a chance, it's free to read! Additionally, you may want to check out the recent HFES Bulletin article, "The Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care".

A description from book:

To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health care--it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocates--as well as patients themselves

Radiation Overdose

2010-01-25T04:56:00.000-08:00

Perhaps many of you have read the book Set Phasers on Stun, by Steve Casey. The title of the book is based on a radiation accident in which a medical operator performed an action that lead to a radiation overdose. So, the patient was literally stunned/burned by the x-ray machine. Although it might appear to be an isolated incident, and new article and video by the the New York Times details more radiation incidents. The greatest tragedy in my mind, however, is that hospital systems do not have to report these incidents. Thus, it is impossible to tell the prevalence of these "accidents", and how to prevent them from occurring.

Stats Advisor

2010-01-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

An online statistical advisor! Answer the questions and it will lead you to an appropriate statistical test for your data.*

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/selstat/ssstart.htm

*From the website

Helicopter Systems - Night Vision and Target Tracking

2010-01-02T09:58:00.001-08:00

An interesting paper on "Apache Aviator Evaluation of Dual-Technology Night Vision Systems in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Urban Combat". [Click the Handle Proxy URL to read the report] I am fascinated with the Pilot Night Vision System/Target Acquisition and Designation System (PNVS/TADS). The movements of TADS can be 'slaved' to the head movements of the helicopter crew to point where they are looking.

Passwords....

2010-01-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Our work decided to change the password system, again. Below are some of the instructions that I received from the mythical information technology admin that govern the password system.

I assume that these are typically password statements that most people see as well when they need to have a password. Any one wonder why we need to write these passwords down, and why we tend to forget them? Each password system seems to have specific, do's and dont's. It would be helpful then when I try to login to provide the password instructions, so I could have a clue what password to use. Somehow, I don't see this issue getting any better in the future at the rate we are going now. There has to be a better way.

"...after December 10, 2009, you must use the Login ID and PIN that you normally use. You then will be prompted to change your login credentials. If you attempt to create a login ID that has already been taken by another user, you will be prompted to create a different one.

New login IDs must be:

*No less than six and no more than 129 characters. (you may use an e-mail address)*Cannot be only nine numbers.*May contain letters and/or numbers and may also contain the following special characters: @ (at sign), _ (underscore), - (dash), .(period), ` (apostrophe)

New passwords must be:

*No less than eight and no more than 15 characters.*May not include the last four numbers of your Social Security number.*May not match your login ID.*May not match any of your previous 10 passwords.*Must contain at least one letter and one number.*Must contain at least one of following special characters: # (pound), @ (at sign), $ (dollar), % (percent), ^ (caret), ! (exclamation), * (asterisk), + (plus), = (equal) ,   _ (underscore)."

HFES Bulletin

2010-01-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

A couple of interesting stories appeared in the December 2009 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Bulletin. These stories were all around the topic of publications: Members Weigh in on HFES Publications, Blogging about Human Factors, and What Science and Research Blogs Do Members Read?.

Readability

2010-01-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

I was sent this application from a friend at George Mason University. I thought others might find it interesting. A description of the product from the website is below, and an example of a CNN story is also provided.

Readability: An acr90 laboratory experiment
"Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you'r reading. "

Automation Articles

2009-12-17T03:31:00.000-08:00

A couple of recent articles have come out regarding automation. Most recently an featured article in the IEEE Spectrum titled Automated to Death, and about a month ago the article Making Automation Work was published in The Communications of ACM.

Watch out! RAMP!!

2009-12-16T06:09:00.000-08:00

Collision warning systems are slowly making their way into American vehicles. Forward collision warning systems (Lincoln MKS), blind spot monitoring systems (Mazda CX-9), and even lane departure warning systems (Infiniti M) are becoming available in more affordable cars and not just super luxury cars. Additionally, these systems no longer offer only passive safety but are becoming more active and begin to intervene in a dangerous situation. For example, Volvo's CitySafe is now a standard feature in the XC60 that will bring the vehicle to a complete stop at low speeds. Similarly, Mercedes Distronic+ system is similar to adaptive cruise control but can also maintain safe distances in heavy traffic by bringing the vehicle to a stop or slow it to a crawl.

Active collision avoidance systems have incredible potential to increase driving safety, but they also introduce some serious human factors concerns, one of which is false alarms. A false alarm is when a collision warning system warns the driver without the presence of an actual threat. A recent road test blog post at Edmunds Inside Line provides a clear example of how false alarms can not only spook the driver, but undermine the driver's trust in the system. In a perfect world collision warning systems would be perfect and there would be no false alarms. However, given the fidelity of current sensor technology, the impact of environmental elements on detection, and the low base rate of collision events, false alarms will certainly be a common occurrence in vehicles with active and passive collision avoidance systems.

Car manufacturers have worked to reduce false alarm rates by increasing the effectiveness of the sensor technology, using additional sensor technology to provide more information, or fine tuning the system algorithm. However, a much easier option may be to change the driver's subjective experience of the false alarm by providing context surrounding the alarm event. If the driver understands the possible circumstances or context that led to a false alarm, then system trust and operator compliance may not be as negatively affected (e.g., unnecessary false alarms vs. true false alarms). Context could be supplied by systems specifications that inform the driver about the limitations of the system or possible false alarm situations. Also, as the Edmunds post shows, drivers can provide context and come to their own conclusions as to the cause and mechanism underlying a false alarm. I believe that if we can develop effective ways to influence drivers' interpretations of false alarms (truthfully or not truthfully) then we can hopefully reduce the impact of false alarms on collision warning system trust and compliance.

The dreaded post-comps let down

2009-12-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

I remember it like it was yesterday. Six hours of straight writing, 4 different topics, 3 months of intense studying...comprehensives. I have never felt so incredibly competent and insecure all at once as I did on the day I took comprehensives. The relief after the completion of the ordeal was immense, the joy and pride I felt after passing was unfathomable, my current struggle in moving into the dissertation phase...unexpected. Other students had mentioned the phantom known as the "post comps let down" but I had always imagined it as a period of recharge due to some form of burnout. For me the "let down" is not from overexertion (though I did take a period of time after comps to breathe), rather my let down is a lack of direction caused by a sudden loss of structure and end goals.

Up until this point, graduate school has been structured by classes, directed research from my advisor, and milestones imposed by the program. Now there is just DISSERTATION. Defining a research problem on my own that will significantly contribute to the literature, writing a book length manuscript, defending months of research to 3 professors who on the day of my defense I imagine to be similar the Big Bad Wolf salivating over the thought of eating little red riding hood, all very overwhelming.

All of a sudden I was tasked with being the driving force behind my research, imposing structure in my own research world, and providing myself with direction. For some reason, rather naively I admit, I imagined all of this would fall right into place, but instituting structure into a suddenly unstructured world has been difficult. For the past semester I have been struggling to begin, struggling to take those first steps into a promising topic area with a tangible research question. This struggle, however, has helped me to refocus my interests, better define the goals of my graduate school education, and appreciate the difficulty of conducting innovative research. Being dropped into the deep end of the pool has been overwhelming, but I am starting to swim toward the shore instead of treading water. Perhaps the let down is different for everyone, but its been quite a time of self-exploration and redefinition.

ESPN Scores

2009-12-03T03:10:00.000-08:00

I am not a big sports fan, but I do like ESPN SportsCenter in the morning. The banter is quite witty, and the commercials are hilarious. One of the major purposes of SportsCenter is to provide their viewers with game scores. They do a good job by providing this scores in an unobtrusive way at the bottom of the screen, and showing one score at time. In addition, they highlight the game winner in a different color, so that they are more salient, and thus easier to read.

This is a great start! However, you never know which side the winner will be on. Sometimes the left, and sometimes the right. This isn't a major blow to their scheme, but it does beg the question how do they decide to order the teams names. It doesn't appear in alphabetic order, so perhaps some type of home/guest scheme. Ordering the teams names in a clear and specific way and highlighting the winning team could allow them to speed up the rate they scroll through scores. And when you have several different leagues (e.g. NBA, NHL, NCAA, etc.) that you have to go through it could make a difference.

Coming soon to roads near you - writing while driving!

2009-12-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

A colleague of mine recently shared an article with me detailing the glamorous features of the 2011 Audi A8. One of the newest and, in my opinion, highly controversial features is the addition of handwriting recognition to the A8's MMI multimedia interface. According to some intial reports (Car and Driver, posts on jalopnik and SlashGear) drivers and passengers will be able to enter destinations into the navigation system by tracing letters and numbers on a touchpad. Obviously the advantage of such an interface is that it is both easy to use and intuitive assuming that the handwriting recognition software performs adequately. However, this interface also raises some real concerns related to driver distraction.

Generally, drivers use soft and hard keys to interface with navigation systems. Soft and hard key interfaces can interfere with driving by redirecting peripheral resources (e.g., hands and vision) away from the driving task. Additionally, these interfaces increase overall driver workload and can interfere with cognitive processes. Similar to soft and hard keys, a handwriting interace also generates peripheral interference. Its real impact, however, would come from greater cognitive costs stemming from a high degree of structural overlap with the driving task. A handwriting interface requires users to reproduce symbols and signs (i.e., letters) in some meaningful order. Using the finger tip to accurately reproduce letters and phrases, taxes both verbal and spatial cognitive resources. Verbal resources to support the language component of writing and spatial resources to support to the act of writing itself. On the other hand, traditional soft and hard key navigation systems do not impose any verbal demands and only minimal spatial demands.

The driving task itself is is largely a spatial task since drivers are constantly adjusting their vehicle position relative to other objects and markings on the roadway. Handwriting interfaces are more likely to interfere with driving and degrade performance than traditional soft and hard key interfaces because the interface requires requires similar types of cognitive resources as driving (i.e., spatial resources). Of course it is unclear the degree to which handwriting interfaces would degrade driving performance (e.g., lane keeping) over their traditional hard and soft key counterparts. It would also be interesting to see if handwriting interfaces introduce a new set of problems stemming from the coupling of hand movements during interfacing. Additional interference could be generated while drivers try to move the steering wheel in directions that conflict with the writing movements they concurrently make on the touchscreen interface. Lots of questions and lots of concern for safety.

Reducing distractions using smartphone applications

2009-11-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

Distracted driving has received a lot of press in the past couple of months. The Department of Transportation held a special distracted driving summit, the NY Times' Matt Richtel wrote a special series of articles called "Driven to Distraction", and a recent truck study completed by Virgina Tech showed that texting while driving increases crash risk 23 times greater compared to not texting. A lot of the recent press has given new life to the driver distraction issue. Law makers have introduced new bills to ban texting, companies have outlawed distracted driving in corporate vehicles, and even Obama issued an executive order aimed at reducing distracted driving by Federal Employees. But will these executive decisions and laws really change people's bad habits and distracting behaviors while driving? What can be done to have a more immediate and larger impact on reducing driver distraction? Lets all give a round of applause for phone apps.

I recently came across a relatively new Blackberry application called ZoomSafer. ZoomSafer is essentially an information/communication manager for your cell phone. The application will suppress incoming text and phone communications when it detects that you are moving faster than 10 mph. ZoomSafer is essentially a firewall for unwanted communication while driving. What is even cooler about ZoomSafer are the social components. ZoomSafer will then send an auto reply notifying a caller or texter that you are currently driving. ZoomSafer also hooks into social networks and updates the users status message to let others know that they are currently driving.

Of course ZoomSafer does not completely eliminate distraction. Incoming calls from close contacts are not suppressed and the user has the option to answer the call. Also, the user has the option to receive messages or texts or emails from close contacts. At this point ZoomSafer turns the phone into a hands-free communication device similar to Ford Sync. Users can respond to the priority contact by navigating through an auditory menu using speech commands. Users can choose to either receive the call or send a voice message reply by email. Hopefully, ZoomSafer made sure to create a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to respond to close contacts. A clumsy or confusing interface will keep users attention off of the road longer, increase workload, and may reduce future use of the product. Additionally, while auditory-voice interfaces do eliminate peripheral interference they can still produce attentional interference that could lead to inattention blindness and reduced visual gaze variability.

ZoomSafer is available for free (though, the free version does not include the voice command features) and is readily available to anyone with a blackberry phone. The availability of the product makes it an exciting intervention for helping to reduce distracted driving. What really appeals to me about ZoomSafer is the social networking feature. Will it create a culture of safe driving among friends on social networking sites? Will status messages reduce the number of incoming calls and messages? Does the status of being a safe ZoomSafer driver improve the likelihood of drivers using the product and hopefully reduce their rate of distracted driving? A number of interesting questions that deserve attention in the future.

Woman Fired Becuase of Captial Letters

2009-09-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

Email has taken over the workplace. But should it be used to fired someone? Sure, maybe if they content in the email was questionable, but what about if someone used captial letters or color. A recent article in the New Zealand Herald describes a story where a woman was fired because she used captial letters in her email. More specifically, the employees thought that many of her emails were too "confrontational".

One reason why you might want to use color, or alter the text size of a letter, is to bring attention to a specific item. The saliency of that item, compared to others, is much greater and people are more likely to see it. However, captial letters also have the contention that people are yelling; and red color general means that people are angry.

So what should you do if you don't want to get fired, but do want people to notice a message. I would put it the message at the front of the email, and in the title as well. Also, you could use characters, such a '*' to demark important items. Or you could put blank spaces / paragraphs between important items. While it seems strange peform these items, perhaps it could save your job.

The Rapt Book

2009-09-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

The New York Times had an article discussing the Rapt book. The article discusses typically ways to reduce the distractions of the day, such as starting on the most important items in the morning or wearing ear plugs while traveling around town. However, it also discusses future ways that we may improve our attention such as using direct manipulation via light. I was also told of a technique that use electrical currents to alter brain function, and thus performance.

I was aware of techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation to direct influence brain activity for the purposes of understanding cognition, but these others techniques to enhance performance were new to me. I am not sure, how I feel about them. An interesting question to ponder is: If you could improve your attention would it matter to you if you had to take a pill or use a device that emitted something into your brain. For myself, I will continue to think about this, but not worry until I see these devices on sale at Walmart.

You fingers can now do much more.

2009-09-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

Our fingers have long played an important role in our lives: They are great tools for eating, for playing an instrument, and for those finger pokes—seen in the classic slap-stick comedy routines.

With the advent of the multi-touch technology, however, our fingers are doing much more. Technology is also using the finger "tap/touch", as a method to interact with a variety of devices. The touch screens of: laptops, restaurants, and smart phones are such examples. Or consider the iPod touch. Users can perform different actions using a finger tip combo. Pinch two fingers together, and the image scales out; spread two fingers apart and the image scales in.

A recent article in BBC news, described the future for our fingertips. The author (Darren Waters) argues that the day of the mouse, keyboard, and desktop graphical interface are numbered. However, Mr. Waters also notes that while current technology exists to read and interpret these finger gestures, a significant hurdle still exists: "part of the challenge is about developing a codified understanding of such actions [read and interpreting human gestures]. In other words, we lack standards-a common method by which we all individuals understand the system operates.

To understand the importance of standards and finger gestures, consider the annoyance you may experience ever time you purchase a new phone. The process of going through and learning the menu structure, and organization scheme of the phone can be a headache. Now, what happens if you have to unlearn previous gestures, and learn new gestures to perform common tasks. Most likely that will invoke a specific kind of gesture that these devices may not respond well to.

Those pesky passwords, and user names too! Oh my.

2009-09-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

Another interesting aspect of the Jared Spool article is that they discovered:

"45% of all customers had multiple registrations in the system, some as many as 10. We also analyzed how many people requested psaswords, to find out it reached 160,000 per day. 75% of these people never tried to complete the purchase once requested."

This size, frequency, and effect of forgetting ones password are remarkable. I must admit, I ran into this problem myself with Amazon, when I had problem tracking a package. I contacted Amazon, and it soon become clear that I had a multiple accounts. It appears now, that I was not the only one. Not only do many people it have multiple accounts, but they also appear to forget their passwords associated with those accounts.

The factors that lead to people forgetting their user accounts and passwords is not clear. For example, is it because they have multiple online accounts with different names and passwords; or is it because they have not visited the site recently. Whatever the cause or casuses of the password issues, the result is clear, people decided it was not worth the hassle and even though the requested their password they decided to move on.

The 300 million button

2009-09-06T16:18:00.000-07:00

People (outside the human factors field, of course) sometimes question why it is necessary to perform usability tests. Furthermore, they often ask what benefit qualitative feedback provides? Well, I ran across one article that talked about the benefits of a usability testing. Jared Spool, an author of one of the articles, wrote:

"The results [of removing a registering button]: The number of customers purchasing went up by 45%. The extra purchases resulted in an extra $15 million the first month. For the first year, the site saw an additional $300,000,000?

While, such examination may not always yield such great return, it is an excellent example of the potential.

Sleep and Daylight Savings

2009-09-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

There are two primary debates surrounding daylight saving time. First, and the most well know is the energy debate . The second, and less well known, is the sleep debate. A New York Times article highlights this debate, and argues that perhaps we should not be switching our time, but rather continue to sleep.

Spelling matters for Job Resumes!

2009-09-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Spelling and grammatical errors annoy my wife, and apparently can also influence what people think about your resume. Dan Munger, at his blog, Cognitive Daily , performed a informal survey / experiment about people thoughts about resumes. Dr. Munger asked readers to rate two hypothetical job candidates (i.e. resumes) for a communications assistant position in a large neuroscience lab.

A couple of different factors were examined. One variable pitted education against experience. Findings showed that most respondents -- nearly 80 percent out of over 800 who completed the survey -- selected experience over education, preferring Suzanne over Emily.

But that was not the real purpose of the study. The real purpose was: to examine whether people should you put more effort into the overall look of a resume or into proofreading to fix typographical errors? Respondents were shown one of the following three conditions: attractive / accurate, attractive / typos, or ugly / accurate. The results revealed that ratings were significantly lower for the resume with typos compared to both the attractive and ugly resumes.

The take home message of the experiment was, "If you have a limited amount of time to work on your resume, you should spend it proofreading, not making it look prettier"

The Fallacy of Multi-tasking?

2009-09-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

On the Kojo Nnamdi show yesterday September 1st they discussed the fallacy of multi-tasking. You could listen to the show on the website, or download it as a podcast on iTunes-and listen to it when you aren't doing other tasks.

Description of the show:

Are you a good multi-tasker and proud of it? Not so fast. New research shows the more people multi-task, the less able they are to pay attention, control their memory, or switch easily from one job to another.

Guests

Lee Rainie, Founding Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Clifford Nass, Stanford University's Thomas M. Storke Professor of Communication; and Founder and Director of the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Laboratory

The Other Search Engines?

2009-06-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

Prior to Google, it was a pain to find an answer to a specific question: What is the Capitol of Brazil. But as technology continues to evolve, so do our search engines. But what is the next thing, and want more do we want from our search engines? A variety of different search engines have come out, offering a variety of different choices search options/methods. For example, there is Mahalo, Wolfrram Alpha, Bing, and Hunch.

Each of these search engines offers something a little bit different, and I wonder when people begin to design these systems, if they known what people come to the web to look for. I have not used these systems much yet, in part because they seem to require a little bit more know (and thus time and energy) to figure out how best to use them. But perhaps someday, one of them will be the next Google.

Really, 50 K for Txting, but the Champ Can't Talk and Txt. OMG!

2009-06-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Kate Moore, fast texting fingers made her 50 K richer, when she won, the LG U.S. National Texting Championship. However, this was no simple texting competition where people sent messages such as, "I want the money" and then were rated based on the fastest and most accurate. Rather, there were several different challenges that the participates had to go through.

Even though, the competitors had to walk through an obstacle course while texting, the champ could not talk and text at the same time. Indicating that there are still some cognitive limits to what people can do (can we say a bottleneck), which also suggests that perhaps the tests designed by LG were a little to simple, and therefore they should develop other challenges that tax different cognitive skills.

Check out the video below for more details.

A Standard Professional Title is Coming Soon?

2009-06-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

We have no choice about the names we are given at birth, but we do have a little bit of say when it comes to the professional names that we use. I found this out when I picked up the mail today.

In the mail was the May-June 2009 HFES Bulletin, a monthly publication related to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; and within this publication was a brief update (which one could easily overlook, I almost did) about, “How Are Our Job Titles Officially Defined?”. The update indicates that there has been contact with the U.S. Department of Labor to define job titles related to human factors for the Standard Occupational Classification System (SOC). Titles that have been suggested are: engineering psychologist, human factor specialist, usability engineer, and usability specialist. However, these are merely suggests, and additional updates will follow in future Bulletin’s; plus a task force is planned to provide additional input. So, if you are curious what professional name you may be given in the future stay tuned, and of course get involved.

Leaving the Lights on, an Example of a Fatal Mistake

2009-06-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

This morning was the pits. I went to start my car, and guess what: Nothing, nada, zip. When this happens I immediately look over at my light switch. And is most often the case in this situation, and I had left the lights on. I immediately turned the lights off, but the damage had been done.
Why, do I always leave the lights on? I have tried several different bevhaioral strategies to change my behavior. At one point, leaving a sign on my dashboard that indicated to check the lights when I got out of the car. But alas, like my car this morning, they don't seem to work.
The only true solution that I can think of is to get a car that automatically turns the lights off. My wife has a car from 1995, and it will automatically turn the lights off when the car is turned off. But my 2001 car, is missing this critical feature, so I am doomed to wait for the next day when I awake to find that my car won't start.
While annoying, forgetting to turn off my car lights is not deadly. However, forgetting to take your child out of your child is deadly. The Washington Post Magazine wrote an article, a couple of months ago about parents whose children died when they forgot to take them out of the car. The Washington Post also provides a brief article about a couple of potential solutions. While our memory is flawed, hopefully we can take correct actions to prevent these events from occuring.

Those Pesky Passwords Again

2009-06-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post article reports, that 55 Million in bogus phone calls were made due to default passwords. Now, there are two potential problems that could have lead to this issue. First, the computer adminstor may have forgotten to change the passwords. Or perhaps, it was easier to just recall the default passwords, then to change them. Either way, it is another indication that those pesky passwords are a problem.

Vacation Post - Informative or Dangerous

2009-06-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

I have always wonder, how much information you should share over social network media. A recent article in Emerging Technologies indicates that perhaps we should be more concerned. It does not provide specifics details, only an example. Still that that example is enough, to make me think twice about what I am posting online.

A Psychological Nudge

2009-06-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

A story by National Public Radio describes the influence of psychology on economic. It is a little bit short on the details regarding which types of behavioral nudges we need to influence our behavior, but it provides a couple of interest quips and a good history (or at least my knowledge of) behavioral economics.

When I first started reading the article, I was hoping for some insight into decision making a buying a house. Of course, because right now I am in the process of buying a house, and I am interested in the process of negotiation. Alas, there is not much in this piece about that type of information, but it is worth a quick glance nevertheless.

Computer Education not so Great When Training the Future Sailor

2009-06-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

I received the following article from a colleague at work. I apologize the entire article is presented below, because it has not yet been posted online. The article describes the findings from the Inspector General on the use of computer training for sailors. Many of the findings are not positive, and it is interesting that officials overseeing the program seem to suggest that it is the fault of the student not necessarily the training. But read it for yourself, and let me know what you think.

The Navy's heavy reliance on computer-based training is producing sailors who aren't ready for their jobs at ships and squadrons, don't grasp basic Navy concepts and could endanger the long-term health of the service, according to an internal report obtained by Navy Times.

The study, completed in March and prepared by the Navy's inspector general for former Navy Secretary Donald Winter, was prompted by worries in the fleet that sailors are reporting from "A" school and "C" school with "a declining level of rate-specific knowledge." In researching that problem, the inspectors zeroed in on computer-based instruction.

The report, begun in May 2008, includes a litany of problems that result from training sailors and recruits on computers, providing few instructors to answer questions and offering the sailors little hands-on experience.

Some of those problems include: Sailors arrive at the fleet without basic knowledge about their jobs or the equipment they'll need to operate and maintain. And when they get to their ships, some sailors need twice as long as before to qualify to stand watches. "Many are unable to recognize and use tools, operate basic equipment, read schematics or follow basic electronics," the IG found.

- Sailors don't learn teamwork, long-standing Navy traditions or even basic military knowledge. Inspectors found that incoming sailors don't know to "ask the chief' and noted "over a dozen in-stances" on a visit to Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Ill., when new sailors didn't know to salute officers.

- Sailors take their courses on computers that are an average of six years old, and those machines suffer from regular freeze-ups, net-work hiccups and other technical problems. Trainees get no allowances in their schedules for time lost to computer problems. Inspectors found that even students who had no connectivity for two days weren't given time to make up the material they couldn't le during the downtime.

- Despite older officials' be that 18- and 19-year-old sailors are instinctively facile with computers and technology, recruits don't absorb computer training well. Sailors told inspectors they just clicked through their presentations as quickly as possible, gleaning only enough information to pass virtual tests, or just clicked every multiple-choice answer until the test registered the correct one. This produces a "snowball" effect: Sailors arrive at "C" school needing remedial training to learn what they should have learned in "A" school, and the need for make-up instruction continues when they arrive at their first assignments.

All this adds up to a generation of undertrained young sailors who can't assess the conditions of their ships, take longer to get qualified once they arrive at their commands, and could jeopardize the Navy as they advance.

"There are valid concerns about the possible long-term impact and how this will manifest in the fleet within the next eight to 10 years, when the seasoned, experienced sailors have retired," investigators wrote.

'A New Modem'

The top two officials with Naval Education and Training Command, which oversees instruction throughout the service, both told Navy Times they welcomed the findings in the IG report. But NETC plans no major reforms beyond what it was already changing, they said, because the IG pointed out long-standing issues the command was already aware of and working on.

"Better governance, electronic classrooms, better [computer-based training], all those efforts have been in place before the re-port, but we have a big domain - we have 33,000 students in advanced skills training every day, with hundreds of lessons being de-livered - it's a pretty big challenge for us," said Rear Adm. Arnold Lotring, NETC's chief operations officer.

Besides, the real issue isn't actually computer training, NETC's two-star commander said.

"In and of itself, computer-based training is not bad, it's not good. It's just another way to deliver con-tent," said Rear Adm. Gary Jones. He called it "a new modem."

However training is delivered, it can only do so much, Jones said. If sailors are taking longer - to qualify or not knowing when to salute, it could be because they aren't practicing the skills they're learning.

"When they get off the bus at Great Lakes, many of them arrive there knowing that, OK, here's the level of performance I have to pass the [physical fitness assessment]. Some did, some didn't," Jones said. "I get their physical fitness level up to a degree. That's only 59 days. But it's a continuum. You have to continue to develop. Is there an expectation that every single thing we deliver, we showed them at boot camp, they're going to retain?

"You have to continue to practice it. I use the analogy of golf. You go out and you get one golf lesson. That doesn't mean you're going to be a PGA professional. You have to practice it. You have to read up on it, you have to think about it, for personal and professional development."

Lotring identified one finding in the report that he hoped could correct a misconception among some Navy officials - just be-cause today's sailors grew up around technology doesn't mean they're better at learning with computers.

"There's an insightful thing in the report about how students come to us - people think be-cause they're 'millennials,' they're computer savvy - but they haven't really learned in the high schools or even colleges [at] the level of the environment we create today. Most schools, although they say, `We have computers in every classroom,' they're really just projector -carts with a PowerPoint," Lotring said.

"When our kids sit in class-rooms, they are sitting in an (Internet-enabled], full-up, I-have two-monitors on some stations to simulate sonar displays, some are on classified networks for intelligence or submarine work, so we are at the high end, way beyond. So we do have to spend time with them to teach them how to learn in an electronic classroom."

The 'Revolution' Continues

In the years since then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark called for a "revolution in training" in 2003, computer-based instruction has pervaded the Navy at every level.

When asked what ratings have the least computer-based instruction, Lotring said there wasn't much for special warfare operators at Basic Underwater Demoliton/SEAL training at Naval Base Coronado, Calif.

But almost everyone else - even ratings with a lot of physical work, such as masters-at-arms - get computer-based instruction, Lotting said. It makes up a third of instruction at "A" schools; 15 percent to 33 percent of training at Officer Training Command; and 100 percent of instruction for annual general military training, according to the IG re-port. About 10 percent of instruction in "C" school is computer-based, said NETC spokesman Cmdr. Dan Gage.

Navy officials prize the computerized instruction because it enables them to standardize lessons for thousands of students, update curricula quickly, and disseminate the latest lessons over the Inter-net to deployed sailors. As the Navy changes, NETC can rapidly customize sailors' training, Lotting said.

For example, surface force commanders called for recruits to learn the Voyage Management System now becoming standard on warships, so NETC developed a computer course to teach them. Officials also could stop training electronics technicians to solder, Lotting said - although that decision hasn't been made yet - be-cause demand for that skill is flagging.

"While we [the new generation] are familiar with working on computers, we aren't used to learning on them."

Above all, computer-based training has fulfilled the main goal of Clark's "revolution" - to reduce the time and money needed to train a typical sailor. A typical fire controlman needed 89 days in "A" school using the Navy's legacy methods, according to the IG re-port, but now needs 64 days with computers. Expanded to the en-tire service, that means sailors are getting to the fleet faster, at a lower cost.

But they're being trained not by "instructors" but "facilitators," the IG report found - people who don't necessarily have any expertise in the subject matter at hand. Facilitators can run the computer equipment that's training the sailors, but can't answer their questions.

Having a person who can answer questions and share a sea story that relates to the application of knowledge in the fleet helps reinforce the course content and is a proven means of effective training," the report says - but too few sailors are getting that.

The bottom line is that, beyond Anecdotal evidence, the IG investigators had no way to determine whether the computer-based training was as good, better or worse than the courses it replaced.

The bottom line is that, beyond anecdotal evidence, the IG investigators had no way to determine whether the computer-based training was a good, better or worse than the course it replaced.

"We encountered difficulty in finding a valid metric by which to compare rating knowledge under legacy training systems and the CBT environment," the report says. Inspectors wanted to compare sailors' test scores, but "learned that other variables impact the design and scoring in each advancement cycle, rendering such a direct comparison meaningless."

THE IG'S RECOMMENDATIONS

The Navy inspector general's report into computer-based training gave five recommendations for changing or improving today's instruction. Naval Education and Training Command's responses to each point:

Recommendation 1: Establish Navy-wide central governance for courses and content development, and analyze whether they serve commonly accepted learning principles. Response: "NETC ... provides central governance via the [Naval Education and Training] series of instructions, which are currently being revised and updated. Finally, the IT delivery and management system governance is maturing."

Recommendation 2: Define the Navy's needs for its future learning environment ashore and at sea, and the actions and costs it'll take to get today's computer training to that level. Response: "We are constantly looking at best practices and ways to improve the learning environment. That is part of the reason why we implemented
[computer-based training]. NETC is working closely with the [Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education] chief information officer to continue to define the requirements for an effective and efficient integrated learning environment."

Recommendation 3: Centralize instructor training and replace "facilitators" with instructors. "Empower instructors to be mentors who teach not only course objectives, but also in-still a sense of pride and professionalism in their students."

Response: NETC will not replace all "facilitators" with instructors, but "will continue to have fully screened, trained and qualified facilitators in our electronic classrooms."

Recommendation 4: Establish a better way for fleet commanders to recommend training curriculum changes to NETC, and develop better ways to measure the effectiveness of training in the fleet.

Response: NETC chief operations officer Rear Adm. Arnold Lotring told Navy Times in an interview that he believes NETC has a good relationship exchanging information with commanders in the fleet.

Recommendation 5: Conduct a .Navy-wide review of general military training, general Navy training and annual training requirements to determine whether computer-based training is the best way to deliver them.

Response: "NETC has just completed an in-depth review of GMT and is working on developing a program of mandated requirements and associated learning materials.

VOICES FROM THE FLEET

The Navy inspector general's office convened 23 focus groups that included 419 participants from across the Navy. According to the IG report, "Only a few participants shared positive comments while the preponderance of feedback indicated dissatisfaction with [computer-based training] as it is currently designed and delivered." Names and ranks of the sailors were not provided. Some of the things they said:

- "They wanted to save money but they haven't. The cost just gets shifted to another area."

- "I spend more time, about 50 percent more, than previous for getting a sailor some basic system knowledge."

- "I at least expect them to know the difference between a wrench and a hammer."

- "I don't know what is important, what to really study."

- "Show me a high school that teaches only by [computer-based training]."

- "What happens when the jets get older and the real troubleshooters are gone?"

- "I'm not rated on this equipment. I can't answer most questions they have."

- "I won't see my actual equipment until I get to the ship. I have reservations that my training will not meet the demands of my new command."

- "Sailors feel de-motivated when they do not meet the expectations of their leadership in the fleet."

A Daily Routine

2009-06-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

Routines are a difficulty thing to do daily, and if those routines are related to health, they could mean the difference between life and death. However, even those routines that are not health related can have important implications for your professional or personal life. For example, what would happen if you didn’t brush your teeth every day, or if you didn't go to work ever day? So what is it about our activities or actions that help promote these regular events.

When I set out with this blog, the plan was to post a daily item related to human factors. Why? Because there are some many items that we encounter on a daily basis that are related to human factors, and therefore it should be easy to identify an item; especially when you work in a human factors career. In addition, I know that my writing is a challenge and one small step that I can do to improve my writing is practice.

So, what can I do to keep the regular writing routine. The first step is to set a regular time, and place where that I write out. If you don’t set a time and place, then you are asking fate to step in on a daily basis to help you out. Therefore, my plan is to write first thing in the morning; on the van pool in the morning, or before I leave to workout at school. What about the weekends, again I will write first thing in the morning. I have found that the most important things you want done should be completed first, otherwise there is a stronger chance that it will not be completed.

Can zigzag markings slow you down when driving?

2009-05-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

Were they drunk when they painted the lines? That is the question posed in a Washington Post article. The article describes a line marking technique that Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) officials hope will slow down drivers at pedestrian intersections. However, these are not simply line markings, but are lines that zigzag back-and-forth 500 ft before a pedestrian crossing.

Several different possibilities for how these lines markings will affect behavioral are debated: will the lines take drivers away from highway hypnosis; will the drivers understand the meaning behind the lines; are the lines distracting or "attention getting"; and finally, will the lines do anything to impact long-term behavior?

The key question however is whether they will get drivers to slow down at the pedestrian crossing. To test the effectiveness of the line markings researchers and engineers from VDOT will be using fake pedestrians – I assume to see if individuals stop at the crosswalk or not. Hopefully the there will be a follow-up on this story, but I am certainly interested to see if there is any impact. My inital impressions are that it will slow down drivers for awhile, but over the long term I expect that will be become use to the markings and they will not influence their behavior.

Dissertation is done

2009-05-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

The dissertation is finally done. I successful defend on Monday, April 27th; and submitted the revisions last Friday, May 1st. My dissertation, looked at a basic research question surrounding visuospatial (i.e. covert) attention: Whether visuospatial attention is controlled by a unified or separate processes. The abstract is below, and I hopefully will be developing a couple of publications based on my findings. In addition, I hope to move some of the basic research findings to more applied arenas such as augmented reality or automated target recognition.

THE FOCUS OF VISUOSPATIAL ATTENTION IS CONTROLLED BY SEPARATE PROCESSES
Peter N. Squire, Ph.D.
George Mason University, 2009
Dissertation Director: Dr. Raja Parasuraman
Abstract:

When driving, the ability to alter the location and size/shape of where attention is directed is important for performing routine driving maneuvers and for identifying potential hazards. Visuospatial attention is a malleable and movable resource that can facilitate processing where it is directed. Research has shown that orienting—moving from one location to another, and distributing—altering the size and shape across visual space are component processes of visuospatial attention that can be driven in a conscious, voluntary manner or captured reflectively or involuntarily. While numerous studies have examined these various forms or manifestations of visuospatial attention, it is not clear if a unified process or separate processes control the deployment of visuospatial attention. The current dissertation systematically explored the question of whether a unified process or separate processes control the deployment visuospatial attention. Four experiments were performed, using a visual search task paradigm, to investigate the question of unified or separate. Findings based on search accuracy suggest that visuospatial attention is controlled by separate processes, specifically an involuntary and voluntary process that controls distributing and orienting component processes.

Augmented Reality and Visual Attention

2009-03-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

We all know that devices are getting small, but now they will be displaying additional information. For example, consider if you were a solider walking in a remote town. Rather than having to look up information about this town, what if that information could be display in real-time on the screen. Several companies such as Microsoft , and Nokia are currently working on this type of augmented reality. While not exactly the same, the iPhone magnify lens for editing text is also a little like a augmented reality; it emulates a real magnifying glass and allows the user to get a close up of the text.

As these devices get small we no longer need to make eye movements or saccade. Fortunately, we can move our focus of attention without needing to move our eyes. Research has shown that these shifts in attention can be directed in an involuntary or voluntary manner.With involuntary attention an object appears, and captures our attention- when the magnifying lens appears on the editing screen. With voluntary attention we consciously move the attentional focus-when searching for where to place the cursor. In addition, to these processes research has shown that we can also vary the size of the attention focus. Each of these processes have trade-offs(more to come in later posts), and as the size of our devices continue to decrease the use of these process will increase.

iPod touch for Marine

2009-03-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Most people rave about the intuitiveness of apple devices, so naturally the government decided to examine the utility of the iPod touch. Specifically, the Marine Core Warfighting Lab (MWCL) has purchased a large amount of these devices and wants to know if they help Marines do they job; and I have been tasked to answer this question.

There are several challenges as I begin this endeavor. First, unlike experimental research there is not a specific metric such as accuracy that I can use to answer this question. Second, to the best of my knowledge iPods have had limited use in the military thus far. I have found only one instance in which they have been used: as a translator; there is however an application for a sniper rife but to my knowledge this has not been deployed in the field. Third, because the iPod touch device has not been used by the military there are no requirements or Concept of Operations (CONOPS). Thus, it is incumbent upon our group to define these requirements, and CONOPS.

Our first action is to identify our user population (e.g. a logistic unit), obtain their feedback, and then submit these requirements to high level decision makers. Hopefully, these high level decisions makers will in turn define if a device will be able to use Wi-fi, or if Marines will be able to use their own personal music. From these decisions we will begin to develop the iPod touch-Marine interaction further. Till then there is no point in developing a design, because there might be specific concerns that would limit what we can do with the device.

Not much better...

2009-03-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have previous written about the human factors "elevator speech" ; or the "what the heck do you do spiel"; and a post by Richard Pak suggests that others have similar experiences too. Last night I got to test my definition, again. My uncle, the wife, and a couple of his friends (whom I have not seen awhile), decided to go out to celebrate my 30th birthday. In our conversion, it came up that I was completing my PhD. This triggered the next question of, "What are you studying".

Typically there are two directions I can go, either Psychology or Human Factors and Applied Cognition. If I say Psychology (which is the overarching discipline at our university, it may be different elsewhere) people generally make some joke about not psychoanalyzing them. If I say, Human Factors and Applied Cognition (HFAC), people typically go, "huh", and have a very confused expression on their face. Last night, I said the HFAC and then tried to immediately explain that our discipline serves as the bridge between the user and engineers. This didn't help much either.

So, I am going to trying and new combo approach. If prompted about the PhD field of study, I will say I am studying psychology; and then immediately say that I am examining the capabilities and limitations of people and the implications they have for developing/designing systems; for example cell phones and drivers. Of course, this spiel would only be used for those people who do not know about the field. I have not yet had an interaction with other working professionals but I am excited to do. Why, because the only why I am going to figure out what works well is of course to practice .

Some efforts are also being made at a national level to promote our field, and thus define it. One particular, effort is the National Ergonomic Month.

The Hidden Human Factors Professional in All of Us

2009-02-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

For the past month and a half I have been going to physical therapy to rehab a sprained ankle. The physical therapy office has a number of different tools, machines and other items to assist in the rehab process for any number of body parts. Sometimes these items are used together for certain exercises. For example the electrical stimulation pads are often used in conjunction with ice packs and heating pads - a very intuitive combination. The pictures below are two other items that are used together:

So the top image is a traction device used for various neck, back, and spinal injuries. The bottom image is an everyday phone book. One of these seems appropriate for use in physical therapy and it certainly is not the phone book!

As it was explained to me, the traction device works really well for young people, but with some older patients, the shape of their spine has changed in such a way that it no longer fits well into the traction machine. Any time you are dealing with the spine, neck or back it is probably best not to mess around and in order to make the device fit the therapists place a phone book underneath the stand in the back of the device to raise it to a more appropriate height.

In essence this is a Human Factors work around solution. Were this product to undergo a true Human Factors redesign, the issue of adjustable height would most likely be addressed, but more often than not we are placed in situations in the real world where we cannot not afford the luxury of full design processes. While a phone book might not instill the utmost confidence for use in spinal correction, it is refreshing to see that people are able to think on their feet and work towards the common Human Factors goal of improved interaction with systems in the world!

No one is immune from distractions, not even the president...

2009-02-17T03:18:00.000-08:00

Sharon Begley of Newsweek wrote an article last week titled, "Will the Blackberry Sink the Presidency?" .

Aside from the importance that the article brings to research on interruption and multitasking, there are two additional coolness factors. First, Deborah Boehm-Davis at George Mason University where I currently resides is cited in the article.

"How damaging an interruption is depends on when it occurs... If you answer the BlackBerry's call at natural breakpoints, you're much more likely to be able to take in the e-mail and then resume what you were doing without that "where was I?" brain lock. In some demanding tasks, however, there may not be any natural breakpoints. Pilots who are interrupted during a preflight checklist sometimes miss an item when they try to pick up where they left off, notes psychologist Deborah Boehm-Davis of George Mason University, who studies interruptions. Last summer's crash of an airliner taking off from Madrid was apparently the result of an interruption-induced error; 153 people died."

The second coolness factor which does not actually appear in the article is that, David Cades received a call from Newsweek to talk about the article. Mr. Cades, has done a fair bit of research on the interruption, and while he did get his day in the sun this time, I am sure it will come.

Article about Human Factors and Enginnering Psychology

2009-02-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

I recieved the following information from the Scott Shappell the current president of APA Division 21- Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology. His topic of conversion is on the difference between Human Factors and Enginnering Psychology. I have not yet reviewed the materials that he provided, but I have listed a couple of items from the email he sent out.

"...how difficult it is to differentiate between the two disciplines [Human Factors / Enginnering Psychology] and what they mean to the future of our civilization."

"Attached are two entries from B. Weiner & W. E. Craighead (Eds.), Corsini’s encyclopedia of psychology (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons that really describe both fields well. I hope you will share them with your students and other colleagues as I believe they define our field well. "

Human Factors Entry

Enginnering Psychology Entry

He also provided, a citation for a Hal Hendrick article.

Hendrick, H. (2000). The Technology of Ergonomics, Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 1(1), pp. 22-33.

Does Expertise Eliminate the Need for Good Design?

2009-02-12T04:41:00.000-08:00

Long time reader, first time poster. As Peter mentioned in his February 8th post, "A bridge between the users and designers", we, as Human Factors engineers, psychologists and practitioners, often spend a lot of time explaining to people exactly what it is we do and why our roles are important. We praise the tenants of intuitive design and work towards making systems safer, easier to use, more enjoyable, and more productive.

This got me thinking about what, if anything, is lost as a result of the Human Factors process. In general the answer is nothing, but, I was able to think of certain situations in which the application of Human Factors design principles was at best unnecessary, and at worst detrimental to performance. The situation.... Expert Performance.

Have you ever watched an expert computer user seamlessly work through numerous programs without ever taking his/her hands off the keyboard, utilizing keyboard shortcut commands instead of relying on the mouse and drop down menus? Why do they do this? The two answers I could come up with were speed and power. In general, performance will be faster if you do not have to constantly move your hand between the keyboard and the mouse. Additionally, there are many functions that are often hidden many levels deep in drop down menus that can be accessed with a simple combination of keys. Knowing and using these combinations gives the expert user more power and flexibility to use a given piece of software.

Here are 2 examples of the difference between how an expert and a novice may interact with the same software:

1. Microsoft Excel:

These are two screenshots of the same program. On the left you see the more recognizable interface with the common icons for New, Open, Save etc. Many users of Excel may not even know that the interface on the right exists. This is the Macro editor for Excel. Macros allow you to automate various processes in Excel that allow for faster handling of large amounts of information or quick performance of common tasks. As you can see there is nothing especially intuitive to the Macro interface, but for those who know how to use them, Macros provide faster and more powerful performance.

2. Statistical Program R:

Here again we have two interfaces for the same piece of software. On the left is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that takes advantage of some Human Factors design principles by embedding knowledge in the menu structure of the system. On the right is the same software in its simplest form - a text based command line interface. If you ask any expert user of R they will undoubtedly prefer the version on the right as it allows them more flexibility in their code and faster access to various functions; however, most non-expert users would prefer to have the support afforded by a GUI that does not require them to know every command by memory.

I am not trying to minimize the value of good Human Factors design principles. In fact, if users were forced to immediately jump into the HF lacking interfaces on the right of each pair of images above there would be many unhappy and unproductive people. What this story does tell us, however, is that good Human Factors designs can support intuitive ease of use for the non-expert and casual user, but that as people gain knowledge and expertise the role of Human Factors changes. Good Human Factors for an expert would be to allow him/her more control and access over a given program, allowing them to work with the speed and the power they desire to be most efficient.

Where do I "Start"?

2009-02-11T05:44:00.000-08:00

On most days Peter and I go to the University library to work in a quiet place. The other day Peter and I got in the elevator to go from the 5th floor down to the lobby. As Peter reached his finger out to the column of elevator buttons, he paused and looked perplexed. This is what he saw:

Do you see why Peter may have had difficulty going to the first floor? The button next to the first floor marker is labeled "Start" (Also notice that the 4th floor button is not labeled at all).

Start? But Peter and I were starting on the 5th floor! Why was the first floor labeled "Start"?. This simple interaction highlights two relevant Human Factors considerations in design, mapping and mental models.

Mapping refers to the relationship between labels or controls and their associated outcome. For example, if an elevator button is labeled 2 then I expect to go to the second floor when I press it. There will be little to no variation in how "2" is interpreted across users. "Start", on the other hand, does not map well to the first floor. The meaning of "Start" is dependent upon the floor that the user gets on the elevator. Good designs have appropriate and obvious mappings.

Mental models guide behavior whenever we interact with something new. For example, when I walk into a dark room, I will search on the inside wall near the door frame for the light switch panel. Light switch panels are commonly placed in this location and when I enter a room I expect this based upon my previous experience. Peter may have paused when he reached for the "Start" button in the elevator because pressing "Start" is not a common method for returning to the first floor. The lobby button is commonly labeled with "1" or "L". "Start" did not fit Peter's mental model. To use the buttons properly he had to adjust his mental model which caused him to pause. Mental models play a large role in the efficiency and method in which users interact with devices.

The gray line of human factors

2009-02-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

I ran into the following two situations at work. First, I was notified that my work pass was going to expire, and received the following notification below. You may notice, it is not entirely clear where I am supposed to go for "More information".

Second, when I had to complete a mandatory training I received the following email (left side). When I went to the training site, the link that they indicated in the email (i.e. "Outstanding Training") was not there (right side). Instead after ten or more minutes, I determined that them meant I should click on the link ("Needed Training").

Are these issues human factors concerns? The first example, may have been corrected very easily if a person checked to make sure the dialog box appeared correctly- with the entire message shown. The second example, may have been corrected if an individual had gone through the process of making sure that the text within the email message and the text within the training website matched. However, neither of these items occurred even though they are very simply mistakes. I am going to argue that these matters are human factors concerns. Moreover, these are the most important type concerns to me because they make me realize why human factors matters.
My task in these matters should have been simple: (1) setup appointment to update work pass, (2) complete training online. However, the interface to accomplish these tasks actually prevented me from perform my tasks. Human factors is about aiding the user in the completion of the task, not about adding addition work. When interfaces, confound, confuse, and cost users time/money/happiness then they should be redesigned. Or even more important, perhaps, some one should have thought about these matters from the start.

A bridge between the user and designers

2009-02-08T04:38:00.001-08:00

My wife often has a difficult time explain my job to others- I am not sure if I do a better job though. Today, she found a description which was simple to remember, and easy to understand. Interestingly enough, the description did not come from her, but from a colleague at work. She gave her standard spiel, and when she was finished her colleague said: "So he is the bridge between users and engineers". Exactly she replied!
While this statement is a great description, I would like to expand/alter a bit. First, I would say that we are a bridge between users and systems designers. Perhaps engineers is simple term to understand, and it might be better to use. But as human factors professional we interact with all sorts of professionals: computer scientists, safety, etc...Second, we serve as the bridge between users and engineers by considering the users perspectives/actions as well as their capabilities/limitations in the design of the system. If these items are put together you have the following brief statement that might as follows. So Mr. Squire, what is it you do for a living. "I am a human factors engineer, and I serve as a bridge between users and engineers(or other system designers) . Specifically, I consider the user perspectives/action, as well as their capabilities and limitations in the design of the system" Now, all I need are to found those examples to help others understand this description.

Tone Deaf - a reason for the american idol

2009-02-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

I have a theory: The small portion of the people that try out for American idol are really not out to make a fool of themselves, they may be tone deaf. Although we laugh at them, this is an important condition when making design considerations.
Tone deafness (congenital amusia) affects approximately 4-5% of the population. The condition has several symptoms which can affect the perception of music. The only reason, that I am now a little bit more aware is because we are developing a radio which uses alert tones to indicate: battery and signal level. For our investigations we found out that tone deafness can affect: the normal thresholds for discriminating pitch changes between tones; and in determining the direction of pitch change when comparing tones. Although, the population is small making these design considerations will help all.

How "Green" is your driving?

2009-02-03T09:49:00.001-08:00

With the recent spike in energy prices, worries about global warming, and government incentives, the auto industry is vigorously researching and developing renewable energy and alternative fuels as a viable method of powering their vehicles. While supplementing or completely replacing gasoline with some alternative form of fuel (e.g., hydrogen, lithium battery) seems like the best long term solution, we are still a long way away from a time where this hybrids and hydrogen vehicles will be available to all drivers. A more immediate solution is to promote "greener" driving behaviors. Driver's can improve fuel economy and drive greener by avoiding quick starts and sudden stops, obeying speed limits, and properly maintaining their vehicle. To encourage some of these behaviors, Ford and Honda have both developed an instrument display to encourage "green" driving. The Ford SmartGauge (top picture) and the Honda EcoAssist (bottom picture) provide drivers feedback about how fuel efficient and eco-friendly their driving is in the form of "leafy" gauges.

Ford SmartGauge (above) and Honda EcoAssist (below)

More efficient driving resuts in additional leaves in both gauges along with a green background in the speedometer of the Honda instrument cluster. As driving becomes less efficient, leaves die off and a blue background appears behind the drivers current speed (Honda only). While I applaud the goal of promoting more fuel-efficient driving, I worry about the impact of these types of displays on driver distraction and performance. Here are some of the potential human factors issues associated with these displays:

Most importantly, do these gauges encourage eco-friendly driving behaviors?
Will drivers intuitivelly understand the gain and loss of leaves reflects eco-friendly driving behavior? Or...
Will drivers associate the gauges with other unrelated driving behaviors?
Are these gauges so complex that they attract too much visual attention and are a potentially dangerous distraction to drivers?
Do these devices impair the driver's ability to sample information from other surrounding devices in the instrument cluster?

It will be interesting to follow consumers and industry experts reactions to these displays. The Ford SmartGauge and Honda EcoAssist will certainly create a lot of buzz along with important human factors research.

What is your job..

2009-01-14T02:50:00.000-08:00

I saw a friend tonight who I had not seen for a couple of years. I met completely random people at this dinner party that I went to on Christmas Eve. And my wife is always asking me again what do I do.
So what I can say to help explain what it is that human factors professionals, or engineering psychologists do. To help keep of the discussion, I have posted a few tidbits and a scenario to get the thoughts flowing.
You are in an evaluator, and you only have thirty seconds to describe what you do.

Tidbits:

Human Factors / Ergonomics as defined by International Ergonomics Association:

Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and other methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.

HSI as defined by Navy Postgraduate School (NPS)

Human Systems Integration (HSI) emphasizes human considerations as the top priority in systems design/acquisition to reduce life cycle costs and optimize system performance.

Formal definitions? Examples? What situations should you use, I will be trying out a variety of this different options and posting my thoughts, potential success and failures.

The Ergonomic Design of a Pipette

2008-12-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

Vistalab technologies asks, what makes a pipette ergonomic? Of course, they make the Oviation, the only pipette that they claim is ergonomic . One thing is for sure, it does look very different from a standard pipette. Plus there are several studies that have been conducted to support their claims; one of which was performed by U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

The morning workout

2008-12-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

When you working out at the university gym you get to see some interesting stuff. There is the occasional pumping iron freak wearing some strange attire . Of course, there are the moderately older individuals coming to keep up the physique. But then there are the student athletes and the rather strange activities that trainers ask them to do.

At first, they were using rubber bands to stretch those sore muscles at the end of workout. More recently, however, they have been performing some unusual stretching routines before working out. Initially, I thought that this was part of their workout routine. But a recent article in the New York Times suggests I am wrong. In fact, it talks about how we were most likely all wrong regarding the way that we stretch.

Rather than doing those static toe touches, we should be performing dynamic stretches. Dynamic stretches apparently are better than static stretches (from the elementary P.E. days of the 90's) at loosen muscles and tendons and warming up the body; two things that are critical for a good warm. Although the research is not completely solid yet (a study of military personnel suggests no difference in injuries between static and dynamic stretching) there is great interest.

One powerful example is the 50% reduction in knee injuries for female collegiate soccer players.

Why is this important for Human Factors. Well safety is a primary concern for personal, and if a substainal number of individuals are injuring themselves playing soccer or using a 50-caliber machine gun then it would be important to reduce such injuries. You could redesign a machine to make it lighter, or provide a place to keep the machine gun upright to take the weight bearing load off the person, but stretching might also help to cut down injuries. It certainly seemed to help the female soccer players, and I don't think the trainers at school are making the athletes do it for their own entertainment. Although, you never know, because as I said before there is a lot of interesting stuff that happens there.

Where is that tool?

2008-12-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

A recent article in MIT technology review , talks about the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) to identify tools. The technology was developed by the company ThingMagic, and can be used by construction personal to identify tools, and know when they are missing. For example, a user could access a database in the morning and identify what tools would be needed for a project; then later in the day when returning from that project, the system could check if all the tools have been returned. I assume if they have not be returned then the user would be alerted in some way, but that is not entirely clear in the article. The only thing this system is missing, is how to locate the tool. There is always upgrades.

Cell Phone Coverage

2008-12-11T02:09:00.001-08:00

We most likley have all heard the slogans: "More bars in more places" or "Can you hear me now". However, we most likely have all experienced the pain of talking on the phone and losing a call, or wondering where we have to go and what body position we have to contort to obtain a signal. In contrast, to the coverage maps that are provided by our friendly cell phone company, two new services have been developed for and by users.

When I say by users, I mean that the signal strength information provided based on the user feedback. The first service, Got Reception?, does a good job of provide a distribution based on a color map gradient scheme. However, since there was no legend, when firsted look at the site I was unclear what the color map scheme representated. Users did post however what phones they were using and they experience.

The second site, Signal Map statement next to the title says it all, "Beta is an understatement". Not quite sure, why some one would publicly acklowedge such a fact but nevertheless it pretty much rings true. The icons are provided a simply and easy way to figure out if you have coverage, 1-5 or a skull for no-signal. However, the icon simply go over top of each other, and it does not provide a weighted interpertation for how useful it is. Not sure if I will use these services myself, but at least it is a first start away from the color filled maps by the carriers themsevels.

Happy Birthday to you, Mr. Mouse

2008-12-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

For forty years you have provide me a way to move around my computer screen. So, I wanted to say happy birthday, and thank you. Of course, from a human factors perspectively there are a few of your kind that are better than most. For example, when you were first born you were a little bit on the large size. But you have developed over time, and with research.

One of the best ways that we have tested the effectiveness of the mouse is through the Fitts law.

The Fitts law was developed by Paul Fitts, one of the first enginnering psychologist in the States. He created a model to predict the time required to rapidly move from one point to another. This predicted movement is a function of the distance to the target and the size and width of the target. In addition to serving as a predictive model, it can be used to measure how efficency an user uses a specific input device (e.g. mouse, trackball, or joystick) to navigate a around a screen. To this date, this Law is still one of the few reliable methods for computing and predicting human performance. And to think it all started with a bowling ball, and a man.

Driving safer in the future, not you.

2008-12-09T18:27:00.001-08:00

Technological advances are every where, and now our cars will be no different. Sure, perhaps we thought cruise control was an advance feature. Or perhaps, most of the advanced features that have occurred we have not been directly aware of, such as ABS. But, alas, safe days are a coming, possible. Scientific American posted a story on crashless cars of the future. However, like the technological advances with aviation they may increase safety, but they also may add addition unforseen problems. For example, studies have shown the automation within the system may not be 100% correct, but if you come to relay on these system and they fail you will respond slower than if you had been peforming the task yourself. These system will undoutable lead to a safer driving experience, but it will be increasing to see how such driving protections progress. If you would like to particpate in the process driving safety, you can develop your own prototype if you are a college or graduate student at the enhance vehcile saftey competition.