The Effect of a Monocular Helmet-Mounted Display on Aircrew Health: A Cohort Study of Apache AH Mk1 Pilits Two-Year Baseline Review

Head-up displays (HUD) and helmet (or head)-mounted displays (HMD) aim at reducing the pilot's visual scanning cost in support of concurrent monitoring of both instrument information (near domain) and the outside environment (far domain). An HMD used in combination with a head tracker enables the assessment of the pilot's head direction in real time allowing symbologies to remain spatially linked to elements of the outside environment. The paper examines the potential added benefits of improved flight path tracking to be expected by displaying symbologies of a virtual 3D perspective pathway plus predictor information on an HMD. Results of a high-fidelity flight-simulation experiment are reported that involved a series of curved approaches supported with such a pathway HMD. The study used a monocular retinal-scanning HMD and involved 18 pilots. Dependent human performance data were derived from flight path tracking measures, subjective measures of mental workload and situation awareness and pilot reactions in response to an unexpected rare event in the outside scene (intruding aircraft on the active runway for the intended landing). Comparison with a standard head-down ILS baseline condition revealed a mix of performance costs and benefits, which is consistent with most of the human factors literature on the general use of HUDs and of HUDs used in combination with pathway guidance: The pathway HMD promoted substantially better flight path tracking but caused also a delayed response to the unexpected event. This effect points to some disadvantages of HUDs referred to as 'attention capture', which may become exaggerated by the additional use of pathway guidance symbology.

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“…binocular rivalry, effects of field-of-view sizes, display lag etc.) as well as long-term health hazards when using monocular HMDs 18,19,29 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

<title>Human performance evaluation of a pathway HMD</title>

2005

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“…Over the years head-mounted displays (HMDs) and virtual retinal displays for visualization have been researched extensively [7,16,21,29]. Unfortunately, many of these displays are cumbersome, and are non-natural in appearance, which limited their use to few early adopters.…”

Section: Devices For Peripheral Information Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing disruption from subtle information delivery during a conversation

Ofek

Iqbal

Strauß

2013

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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With proliferation of mobile devices that provide ubiquitous access to information, the question arises of how distracting processing information in social settings can be, especially during face-to-face conversations. However, relevant information presented at opportune moments may help enhance conversation quality. In this paper, we study how much information users can consume during a conversation and what information delivery mode, via audio or visual aids, helps them effectively conceal the fact that they are receiving information. We observe that users can internalize more information while still disguising this fact the best when information is delivered visually in batches (multiple pieces of information at a time) and perform better on both dimensions if information is delivered while they are not speaking. Interestingly, participants qualitatively did not prefer this mode as being the easiest to use, preferring modes that displayed one piece of information at a time.

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“…Manton (2000) surveyed various aircrew personnel who used NVGs and found that 14% of the respondents indicated concern about the long-term effects on eyesight. In a 10-year occupational health study of users of monocular night vision devices, Rash et al (2009; see also Rash et al, 2004) reported that at the time of this report (after 4 years of the 10), there was no evidence that the prolonged use of the monocular helmet-mounted night vision device produced any meaningful changes in visual performance between the two eyes. In addition, there was no indication that long-term use of the helmet-mounted night vision device resulted in negative physiological effects, especially related to vision.…”

Section: The Human Factorsmentioning

confidence: 84%

The Human Factors of Night Vision Goggles

Parush¹,

Gauthier²,

Arseneau³

et al. 2011

Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics

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The technology underlying night vision goggles (NVGs) enhances human ability to operate in dark and low-light conditions. However, NVG-aided vision is limited relative to daylight human vision and may entail risks. This review focuses on NVGs with image intensifier technology and explores the impact of their use on human performance. The review covers technology and device characteristics (image quality and field of view), physical configuration (ocular configuration, NVG weight, and forward center of gravity), and contextual and environmental factors (mission and task aspects, lighting, weather, and terrain). The key human factors in NVG use are visual and cognitive performance (visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, stereopsis and depth perception, distance and size estimation, spatial orientation, and situation awareness), and physical and physiological aspects (neck strain and injuries, and headaches). Understanding technology and contextual factors and their influence on human factors is critical to improving performance and safety with NVGs. Technology and device improvements, along with appropriate mission planning and training, play a critical role in aided night vision performance. INTroDuCTIoN Vision is the most dominant perceptual sense and requires adequate lighting to be effective. Yet there is often a need to operate in inadequate lighting circumstances. Many military missions and tasks are performed in poor light conditions and in the dark because it affords better concealment and surprise. In addition, numerous civilian operations and occupations take place in poor lighting conditions: search and rescue, law enforcement (police, border control, surveillance, etc.), hunting, wildlife observation, and many more. In most of those circumstances, people aim to perform in poor light conditions as well as they would in the daytime. However, although humans have developed exceptional day vision, they nevertheless have poor night vision. There is a real need, therefore, for technologies to enhance vision in low-light circumstances.

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The Effect of a Monocular Helmet-Mounted Display on Aircrew Health: A Cohort Study of Apache AH Mk1 Pilits Two-Year Baseline Review

Cited by 5 publications

References 13 publications

<title>Human performance evaluation of a pathway HMD</title>

<title>Human performance evaluation of a pathway HMD</title>

Reducing disruption from subtle information delivery during a conversation

The Human Factors of Night Vision Goggles

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