INCREASED HEAD UP TIMES AND ADVANCED INTERACTION WITH TOWER FLIGHT DATA: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON AUGMENTED VISION AND ADAPTIVE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Abstract

This paper presents the empirical results of a pilot study within a series of concept studies investigating an innovative concept for tower controllers which fuses adaptive integrated information management with augmented vision. Several air traffic controllers evaluated three different configurations of a prototypic tower controller working position (CWP) in a 360° tower simulator. The first setup was a conventional CWP without any augmented information presentation. The second setup was enhanced by augmented callsigns in the outside view and the third setup provided a conventional CWP enhanced by a context-adaptive display of augmented aircraft label with integrated flight data. For all three configurations eye tracking data were recorded and analysed. Comparisons of the eye tracking data between a conventional CWP and a CWP using merely augmented callsigns in the natural outside view showed that the head up time of tower controllers were increased from 34% to 50%. The head-up times were further increased up to nearly 60% when augmented aircraft label were displayed adaptively, i.e. the aircraft label were triggered by the current operational context. The controllers reported also an increased situational awareness for both the simple callsign augmentation and even more for the adaptively augmented aircraft label. A further important finding of the study was the mandatory coupling of the electronic flight strips with the augmented outside view, so that tower controllers receive immediate feedback on the current status of an aircraft and thus maintain adequate situational awareness. The controllers proposed that given clearances and the selection of flight strips should be displayed in the outside view. This further concept development may propagate a paradigm shift on augmented vision: away from a solely display system to an interactive operating system.