Multimodal Analysis of Eye Movements and Fatigue in a Simulated Glass Cockpit Environment

Abstract

Pilot fatigue is a critical reason for aviation accidents related to human errors. Human-related accidents might be reduced if the pilots’ eye movement measures can be leveraged to predict fatigue. Eye tracking can be a non-intrusive viable approach that does not require the pilots to pause their current task, and the device does not need to be in direct contact with the pilots. In this study, the positive or negative correlations among the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) measures (i.e., reaction times, number of false alarms, and number of lapses) and eye movement measures (i.e., pupil size, eye fixation number, eye fixation duration, visual entropy) were investigated. Then, fatigue predictive models were developed to predict fatigue using eye movement measures identified through forward and backward stepwise regressions. The proposed approach was implemented in a simulated short-haul multiphase flight mission involving novice and expert pilots. The results showed that the correlations among the measures were different based on expertise (i.e., novices vs. experts); thus, two predictive models were developed accordingly. In addition, the results from the regressions showed that either a single or a subset of the eye movement measures might be sufficient to predict fatigue. The results show the promise of using non-intrusive eye movements as an indicator for fatigue prediction and provides a foundation that can lead us closer to developing a near real-time warning system to prevent critical accidents.

Eye movement characteristics and visual fatigue assessment of virtual reality games with different interaction modes

“…Pupil diameter is another common way of assessing visual fatigue. Previous studies have shown that a decreased pupil diameter is correlated with a more severe level of visual fatigue (Lee et al, 2013;Naeeri et al, 2021). In this study, the pupil diameter was significantly smaller in the primary mode than in the 360 mode (Figure 4A).…”

“…However, there was no difference in the average fixation angle between the two modes. An increased fixation duration and decreased fixation frequency are a reflection of visual fatigue, as prolonged fixation time may indicate a need for more time to focus and process the information of interest (Naeeri et al, 2021). Feng et al used fixation frequency and saccade amplitude to assess the effect of far-infrared therapy in relieving visual fatigue and demonstrated the effectiveness of these parameters in assessing visual fatigue (Feng et al, 2019).…”

Multi-method Analysis Approach to Investigate the Effect of Intermittent Interventions on Sustained Attention: Application on a Passport Screening Task

“…More data should be collected to verify whether the results might accord with bootstrapping results. Future research includes, but are not limited to, investigating sustained attention along with our recent research activities related to physiological measures (Palma Fraga et al, 2020), situation awareness (Argyle et al, 2020), and/or fatigue (Naeeri et al, 2021) that involves prolonged repetitive tasks.…”

Development of a Smart Learning Application in Multi-person Virtual Reality Using Biometric Measures of Neuroimaging, Eye Tracking, and Haptic Interactions

“…The MVR semantic network app is one of the teaching/learning apps that are being developed at the Human Factors and Simulation Laboratory (Director: Dr. Ziho Kang) at the University of Oklahoma. Other ongoing research activities include, but are not limited to, improving the near real-time analysis capabilities (Kang, 2017; Palma-Fraga et al, 2021), developing algorithms to better visualize the real-time data, investigating the correlations among the various biometric measures (Naeeri et al, 2021), and address the diversified needs among individual based on Universal Design and Learning concept (Rose, 2000).…”