Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. Applications and Services

Maintaining high levels of road traffic safety is always important and when the road is in a tunnel, and especially in a long tunnel, maintaining the highest possible level of safety is paramount. In Sweden, the Stockholm bypass tunnel has been scheduled to commence construction in 2013. The tunnel will be approximately 18 km in length. The length of the tunnel is expected to affect the drivers’ experiences pertaining drowsiness, arousal, distraction and feelings of safety and security. The study included 24 participants, 12 men and 12 women, aged 30-45. All of the participants drove two versions of the tunnel, one version with a decoration design in terms of string lighting in the ceiling of the tunnel and one version of the tunnel without any decoration design. Eye tracking behaviour was measured during the study. CR10 ratings of four subjective dimensions (distraction, visually cluttered, visually stimulating/arousal and safety and well-being) during the drive were also measured. The results revealed that 58 per cent of the participants preferred the tunnel with the strings of light in the ceiling and 29 per cent preferred the tunnel without the ceiling lighting. 13 per cent prefer neither one design more than the other. The participants perceived feelings of their driving through the tunnel suggested that the tunnel with the ceiling light design was experienced as being more ”visually cluttered” than the tunnel without the light strings but at the same time it was also experienced as more ”arousing/stimulating”. Mean glance duration times suggested that although there was a significant main effect of the tunnel with the string lighting and in specific areas of the tunnel, the drivers were looking at the ceiling lighting but using short glances (445.3 ms with lighting and 234.3 ms without lighting). The negative safety implications of the elaborate interior lighting features would appear to be minimal in terms of distraction and irritation whereas the safety benefits in this particularly long road tunnel, in terms of subjective feelings of visual stimulation is encouraging. Based on the participants’ experiences of the interior design concept of the 18 km long tunnel, having stimulating lighting features in different locations alone the length of the tunnel is recommended.

Two experiments with 24 participants each evaluated comprehension of vibrotactile route guidance instructions via a tactile seat in a driving simulator. Vibrotactile patterns were presented from an array of 8 tactors arranged in two rows of 4 tactors located in the seat pan. A faster pulse rate and a slower pulse rate as well as four distinct locations on the tactile seat (Front-Left, Front-Right, Back-Left, Back-Right) created 8 different combinations of stimuli. Across all participants, the most consistent interpretation was that the faster pulse rate played from the back two tactors was perceived as an instruction to make the next most immediate turn while a slow pulse rate from the front two tactors was interpreted as a cue directing the user to the direction of the next eventual turn. Results have direct implications for design of effective vibrotactile and multimodal route guidance systems.

In most safety critical domains, safety has been improved through the application of contemporary human error models and management methods. But the common strategic approach to improve road safety has so far mainly been built on the view that individual road-users utterly are responsible when crashes occur and countermeasures have consequently been aimed at changing the behaviour of the road-user. This approach is however slowly shifting and there is a growing understanding that the strategies must be based on human factors principles. In this paper the human factors principles of the Safe System approach are outlined and important implications for the design and regulation of the road transport system will be presented. It is concluded that the Safe System approach share vital foundations with the human factors concept. But it is argued that the Safe System approach takes the human factors approach further by regarding the capability of the human body to withstand external influences with a potential to induce bodily harm.

Safe system strategies govern the approaches to road safety in many countries. This is the case for both road and rail safety in Australia. In this paper we take a complex segment of the road and rail system, rail level crossings, to demonstrate why the current approaches to safety in this area need to change. We argue that approaches that are more consistent with real systems thinking are required to generate the new interventions needed to reduce road trauma in this setting. In recognizing the need for new approaches the Victorian road and rail sponsors have partnered with Australian and UK Universities in an exciting four year initiative designed to change the paradigm in RLX safety. In this paper we outline the rationale for this change and describe the four phase analytical approach being used. It is hoped that this approach will help to actualise safe system strategies in ways that are more consistent with systems thinking and that significantly improve safety.

A study was conducted on a dynamic driving simulator aiming to examine whether the effect of mental effort due to an auditory detection task on accident risk is additive to the effect of higher speed. Two levels of the driving task were employed, a low-demanding and a high-demanding one. Twenty drivers were asked to drive two rounds on a rural road with normal traffic, with unexpected traffic events along the second round. In half of the cases an auditory detection task had to be performed in parallel. The analysis of results showed that higher speed or higher mental effort due to the secondary task lead to more accidents and the effects should be considered as additive. These effects should not be considered as the mere effect of attentional resource availability but as depending on the drivers’ skill to manage their attentional control.

Cognitive work analysis (CWA), a systems-based analysis framework, is intended to inform system design. However, there is little guidance available about how to use the framework in design. This paper identifies desirable methodological attributes for a new design approach for CWA and describes a process of refining these to a core set based on the opinions of CWA practitioners. The new design approach, the CWA Design Tool (CWA-DT), is outlined in terms of how it aligns with these core attributes. Finally, implications of application of the CWA-DT for road safety design will be identified and discussed.

Collisions between distinct road users (e.g. drivers and motorcyclists) make a substantial contribution to the road trauma burden. Although evidence suggests distinct road users interpret the same road situations differently, it is not clear how road users’ situation awareness differs, nor is it clear which differences might lead to conflicts. This article presents the findings from an on-road study which examined driver, cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian situation awareness at intersections. The findings suggest that situation awareness at intersection is markedly different across the four road user groups studied, and that some of these differences may create conflicts between the different road users. The findings also suggest that the causes of the differences identified relate to road design and road user experience. In closing, the key role of road design and training in supporting safe interactions between distinct road users is discussed.

To increase runway safety a new safety net for Tower Runway Controllers was developed which detects if controllers give a clearance to an aircraft or vehicle contradictory to another clearance already given to another mobile. In a shadow mode validation exercise with eleven controllers at the operational environment of the airport Hamburg (Germany) operational feasibility was tested in order to clarify if operational requirements in terms of usability are fulfilled. At the same time operational improvements regarding safety were studied e.g. if the new safety net detects all conflicts and if nuisance alerts are suppressed.

This study applied Human Factors Intervention Matrix (HFIX) framework described by Wiegmann and Shappell. METHOD: The data set comprised of 31 incident investigation reports taken place between 2009 and 2011 and included 182 unique safety recommendations to reduce human errors. The results indicated that major recommendations were directed at organizational/ administrative and human/ crew approaches and the most effective interventions concentrated on decision errors and violations. This study has demonstrated that the HFIX framework can be applied to improve human errors by five different approaches. It also has suggested that decision error and violations are critical issues of flight safety and these can be improved by training and organizational administration.

current study investigates 83 civil aviation and military services helicopter accidents in Taiwan between 1970 and 2010. The probable and latent causes of those accidents are clearly defined, and statistically analyzed by error related paths and Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). Results indicate that categories of the higher level have better predicted power (between 4.25% and 24.9%) than categories of the lower levels (with odd ratios between 0.19 and 8.67). Fallible decisions in upper command levels directly affect supervisory practices which create pre-conditions for unsafe acts, impair performance of pilots, and lead to unexpected accidents. By identifying the higher level human errors leading to low level helicopter mishaps, HFACS is useful a tool for accident investigations and accident prevention strategies. Current study provides a practical suggestion to top managers for a better helicopter operational safety environment.

Here, a descriptive study is reported that addresses the relationship between flight control performance and instrument scanning behavior. This work was performed in a fixed-based flight simulator. It targets the ability of untrained novices to pilot a lightweight rotorcraft in a flight scenario that consisted of fundamental mission task elements such as speed and altitude changes. The results indicate that better control performance occurs when gaze is more selective for and focused on key instruments. Ideal instrument scanning behavior is proposed and its relevance for training instructions and visual instrument design is discussed.

Future remote control of small low traffic airports (Remote Tower Operation, RTO) will rely on the replacement of the conventional control tower out-of-windows view by a panoramic digital reconstruction with high resolution and pan-tilt zoom (PTZ) video cameras as basic sensor system. This provides the required visual cues for aerodrome traffic control without a local control tower. Here we show that with a 2 arcmin-per-pixel resolution panorama system even with the use of a manually controlled (analog) PTZ camera (with PAL TV-resolution and selectable zoom factor setting) experiments under operational conditions indicate a significant increase of decision errors under RTO as compared to the conventional out-of-windows view. We quantify the corresponding discrimination difference by means of detection theory (discriminability, decision criteria) and Bayes inference (risk of false decisions) using the response errors of tower controllers with regard to dual choice decision tasks. The results extend the performance and subjective data analysis of safety related maneuvers in 11.

This article describes an automation concept, which enables the pilot of a single-seat fighter aircraft to manage more than one unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). The presented concept bases on the theory of cognitive and cooperative automation and suggests that unmanned aircraft are equipped with on-board artificial cognitive units (ACUs). By this, unmanned platforms are enabled to exhibit cooperative capabilities and rational behavior in the context of the mission. To accomplish efficient manned-unmanned cooperation the concept additionally proposes to support the pilot with an assistant system module for team coordination tasks and to provide a self-explanation capability to the unmanned aircraft. This concept has been realized as laboratory prototype and already been tested with operational personnel in our human-in-the-loop full scenario simulation environment. For the further evaluation of the concept an experimental design has been worked out.

Human Factors is no longer simply concerned with the design of equipment and work stations. This old view is being superseded by a systems-based approach which examines all aspects of the working environment and makes little or no attempt to separate the human, machine and task environment. This socio-technical systems approach complements the latest thinking from cognitive science which regards the human use of technological artifacts as a joint cognitive system. People work in teams, who all have a slightly different perspective of the system; the tools that they use serve as ‘cognitive amplifiers’ to enhance human abilities. This brief overview begins by examining the operation of commercial aircraft as a joint cognitive system and examines the role of CRM in promoting distributed cognition on the flight deck.

The purpose of this study is intended to address the current state of comprehensibility of airline safety briefing cards by adopting the eye-tracking experimental method and comprehension test to solve the relationship between comprehensibility and fixations of airline safety briefing cards. The Land Evacuation Section of a safety card was selected to measure respondents’ eye movements together with a survey to test the comprehension of pictorials/pictograms. 51 subjects participated with this study. The results indicate that the universal situation that safety information is not well transferred to passengers and potential passengers. The result of study also showe that the pictograms related to “how to operate emergency door” took the longest fixation time and fixation counts, yet with the highest comprehension score. Meanwhile, other pictorials also showed the positive correlation between their comprehensibility and fixation time and fixation counts. The implications from these results were discussed. It is hoped that the present work will generate interest in the designer and user for providing guidance in the development of cabin safety briefing card.

The human factor is becoming a main topic in modeling and simulation, especially in airline safety as more aviation accidents are classified as pilot (human) errors. Traditional modeling schemes treat pilots and aircraft individually, assuming the other as given. However, to define a system-level architecture for the safety analysis, it is advantageous to expand the system boundary to include both pilots and aircraft as a coupled entity. In this paper, we propose a framework for pilot-aircraft system modeling scheme from a complex systems point of view. Key pilot factors are identified and quantified, and complex relationships and interaction among these factors are incorporated into usually well-modeled aircraft system. We also introduce a fast-time simulation model of man-aircraft-environment complex system with the human strategy model as its core to generate large sample sizes of flight data for this modeling purpose. The given results not only provide a proactive approach to the research of flying safety, it can also be applied to other complex dynamic systems.

The goal of this research is to reveal the influence of a newly developed concept of guanxi gradient on crew resource management and the corresponding values in a Chinese cockpit. Guanxi gradient is a cultural variable describing the decay of attitude considering different degree of interpersonal intimacy. A questionnaire measuring the attitude change is designed in the study. The questionnaire includes three parts which are basic perception, situational response and open questions. The objective of these questions is to find out how the operations of CRM were affected by the different degree of intimacy. Also, the questionnaire was designed to expose the corresponding underlying Chinese value system. It is found that harmony is the top value in cases without safety concerns.

Long landing events make up the largest percentage of all exceedance incidents and multiply the risk of runway excursions in landing phase. For the aim of exploring operating factors causing long landing, this study examined the pilot operating characteristics of long landing events by the methods of variance analysis, regression modeling and flare operation analysis based on flight QAR data. Finally it concluded that flare is the most critical operation in landing, which determining the touchdown distance by two key factors of flare time and flare height. Both of the control column and throttle operation plays an important role in the flare process. Pilots’ faster pulling up columns and softer throttle closing is probably helpful for a successful flare. In addition, pilots need to control the aircraft to an appropriate groundspeed and descent rate before descending to the flare initial point. The conclusions are expected to be applied into practice to prevent the happening of long landing events.

Under high pressure of flight mission and dynamic aircraft maneuvers in the tactic missions, pilot faces additional difficulties and increased mental workload. Workload could increase the error of flight operation, decrease efficiency of pilot’s decision-making. Experts had significantly shorter dwells, more total fixations, more aim point and airspeed fixations and fewer altimeter fixations than novices, experts were also found to have better defined eye-scanning patterns. This research applies the eye-tracking technology for analyzing visual attention, emWave-2 for measuring physiological coherence, and NSAS-TLX for investigating subjective cognitive efforts. The participants of this research consisted of 41 fighter pilots. The present study is applying new technology to understand the pilots’ workload and visual attention in the cockpit for conducting a simulated air-to-air tactic operation. There is a raising need for further research regarding mental workload and stress management program for real-time flight operations.

Today, Fatigue is one of the hottest issues discussed in civil aviation of the world. However, because the numbers of the contributing factors and the diversity of symptoms, it makes the fatigue monitoring and the fatigue management as a problem. Based on the FRMS framework of Canada, this article will focus on the fatigue monitoring technologies of China, they are the methods on the assessment of work schedule, fatigue symptoms and the actual sleep time. These fatigue risk control measures and tools are designed for the pilots at present, and then it will be gradually developed for ATC and maintenance personnel.

Glare is a key factor influencing the visual performance in light conditions of civil airplane flight deck, but it is difficult to directly evaluate the complex glare sources in flight deck, such as non-uniform glare, irregular shape glare and indirect glare using current glare equations. In this paper, a method based on digital camera was proposed to evaluate glare is proposed to evaluate the glare from flight deck. Digital camera’s imaging luminance measurement is based on High Dynamic Range (HDR) image processing. The computational procedures to calculate source luminance, background luminance, position index and solid angle of source, to detect the glare sources were developed in Matlab. And then, the desired glare index can be computed. Finally, Daylight Glare Probability (DGP) equation was utilized as an example to evaluate the glare for flight deck in daytime. The results indicate that the proposed method can compute glare index automatically and quickly.

The experiments described here explored how pilots want available maneuver authority information transmitted and how this information affects pilots before and after an aircraft failure. The aircraft dynamic variables relative to flight performance were narrowed to energy management variables. A survey was conducted to determine what these variables should be. Survey results indicated that bank angle, vertical velocity, and airspeed were the preferred variables. Based on this, two displays were designed to inform the pilot of available maneuver envelope expressed as bank angle, vertical velocity, and airspeed. These displays were used in an experiment involving control surface failures. Results indicate the displayed limitations in bank angle, vertical velocity, and airspeed were helpful to the pilots during aircraft surface failures. However, the additional information did lead to a slight increase in workload, a small decrease in perceived aircraft flying qualities, and no effect on aircraft situation awareness.

Human factors have an important impact on aviation safety. The evaluation of pilot’s workload is one of the most noteworthy human factors issues. After a brief overview of workload measurement techniques, a layered multi-dimensional description of workload is proposed, and the method is based on multiple objective measures. Heart rate, respiration, eye movements, control inputs and flight data are recorded in a simulated flight. The sensitivity and diagnosticity of several psychophysiological measurements are analyzed. Finally, a multi-dimensional pattern is constructed using the proposed method. The pattern can give a detailed description of pilot’s workload throughout the flight.

A new forecast model of attention allocation was built on four trade-off factors, including information priority, occurring probability, salient and effort, which involved both channels of information processing. To validate this model, sixteen participants from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics were recruited to perform an instrument monitoring task under different conditions. Participants were required to concentrate on monitoring the flight indicators presented on a simulation interface of head-up display and respond to abnormal information (anyone of the indicators went out of the normal range) by pressing the corresponding buttons on the keyboard. Fixation distribution was recorded as evaluation index of attention allocation using Smart Eye Pro 4.5 eye-movement tracking device. Simultaneously, reaction time and correct rate of key-press response were recorded by computer automatically as evaluation indices of behavior performance. The regression analysis revealed good agreement between fixation distribution and theoretical results.

This research proposed a coherent assessment method for evaluating visual ergonomics in simulated flight deck via evaluating psychological indices and performance during a series of experiments. A simulated flight deck environment was established according to the dimensions of a real commercial aircraft cockpit with back projection, and then a balanced sequence of pseudo random variates was generated with replicated Latin square design. After the experiment of 18 interior color levels and 2 luminance levels, a complex statistical analysis was conducted to examine the significance as well as correlations within different factors. The fluctuation of luminance can affects the results slightly, while the change of the interior color, both hue and saturation-intensity levels, can influence subjects’ visual ergonomics significantly and interactively. This coherent assessment indicates that light blue was the best choice, whereas, vivid yellow was the last among the 18 colors.

“Human Error” is one of the major reasons of aircraft accident and incident. In order to reduce the loss by “Human Error”, the “human error” action sequence must be detected and provide warning to pilot or intelligent action when pilot violates the operation procedures or any actions that may cause potential accident or incident. To identify and manage the “Human Error” is becoming more and more important.

The response of unit varies with human’s behavior. If the correct operation behavior can be digital described, then human’s operation behavior will be partly quantized. Pilots guide the airplane mainly by operations manual, excluding facility failure, there exist operations regularity, that is time-ordered action sequence. Operating steps and therbligs can be intuitive quantitative by coding operations process. Fully considering behavioral characteristics of the pilot group, to optimize time sequence and action sequence parameters will make the operation behavior code be more accurate. The study in operation behavior coding and analysis will play an important role in effectively reducing the probability of flight accidents caused by human factors.

This paper designed and developed a set of effective behavior coding method on the basis of computer compilation principle, starting from unit operation behavior and description of abstraction, using mathematical method to analyze the connections between operation tasks.

The objective of this review is to extract design implications from multiyear US Army sponsored research investigating humans and autonomy. The programs covered diverse research paradigms: (a) effects of autonomy related to pedestrian safety during urban robotic missions, (b) supervision of multiple semi-autonomous robots assisted by an intelligent agent, (c) field investigations of advanced interfaces for hands- free and heads- up supervision of robots for dismounted missions and also investigations of telepresence, (d) effects of haptic control and stereovision for exploiting improvised explosive devices. Thirteen general design guidelines related to mixed initiative systems, pedestrian safety, telepresence, voice control and stereovision/haptic control are discussed.

Ground vehicles are increasingly designed to incorporate autonomous control for better performance, control and efficiency. Such control is particularly critical for military logistics vehicles where drivers are carrying sensitive loads through potentially threatening routes. It is imperative therefore to evaluate what role does autonomy play to help safety, and whether drivers trust autonomous control. In this paper we investigate the use of semi-autonomous vehicles used for military logistics and carry out human factors analysis to reflect on trust and safety issues that emerge from the driving of such vehicles.

Threat evaluation (TE) is concerned with determining the intent, capability and opportunity of detected targets. To their aid, military operators use support systems that analyse incoming data and make inferences based on the active evaluation framework. Several interface and interaction guidelines have been proposed for the implementation of TE systems; however there is a lack of research regarding how to make these systems transparent to their operators. This paper presents the results from interviews conducted with TE operators focusing on the need for and possibilities of improving the transparency of TE systems through the visualization of uncertainty and the presentation of the system rationale.

Controlling a short-range missile with in-flight reconfiguration capabilities places high demands on the design of the missile operators’ control station and automated functions. To enable the missile operator to react fast, reliable and in a responsible manner to unforeseen events, e.g. high risk for collateral damage, an automated decision support system is investigated in this article. A common approach to reduce the high time demands of the operator is to transfer more functions from the human to the machine. Such emerging high levels of automation introduce ethical problems as well as new issues in human-automation-interaction to be resolved. At the Institute of Flight Systems we follow a well-established approach of human-automation cogency to assist human operators while keeping them fully involved in decision processes, i.e. “dual-mode cognitive automation, DMCA”. This article presents first steps towards the application to a high-tempo mission with minimal information on the task and the tactical environment being available to the automated system.

We present an approach to relieve the human from the time critical task to enter suchlike information into the system, thereby freeing cognitive resources for mission critical decisions. At the same time the assistant system observes the actions of the missile operator, infers his/her most likely intents, and adapts support functions accordingly. Comparing the human’s control actions with intention related task models, the assistant system shall identify errors and suggest alternative actions or possible solutions. The operator remains in full control of all functions and decides whether to accept or decline the assistant systems advises. This article provides an overview over the main conceptual ideas and the current status of prototype implementation.

A “delegation approach” to human interaction with automation should strive to achieve all of the flexibility that a human supervisor has in instructing, managing, redirecting and overriding well-trained human subordinates. But in the absence of human-like, natural-language understanding “androids”, what would such interaction look like? This multi-year design and evaluation project explores such interaction concepts for pilot control of multiple remotely piloted systems. This paper details the underlying philosophy of delegation and presents many design innovations developed to date.

Studies indicate that “cloud" based concepts will provide benefits by maximising the availability of capability, reducing redundancy and permitting efficiencies in operation and deployment of effect. To deploy the cloud will require many problems to be solved. This paper examines automation applied to the cloud and builds on substantial work looking at command abstraction of users and consumers interacting with systems. The work retains the absolute authority of the human supervisor. Data is presented of a recent trial which immersed serving military personnel, exercising both manned and unmanned systems within a synthetic environment, whilst divorcing operators from platform ownership and concentrating instead on task ownership (thus linking person to purpose). Baseline systems were compared with systems possessing higher degrees of automation and tool functionality. The results are discussed and the key conclusions show clear benefits to operating in the person to purpose manner.

This paper introduces the concept of the Human Domain within military operations and considers how it has evolved from Cultural Geography into more specific sub-components of Human Geography and Human Terrain. At a high level, Human Geography and Human Terrain map across to strategic and tactical decision-making respectively. However, there is a confusing array of terminology and definitions surrounding these factors. Given this complexity, what might have originally been considered a Human Domain continuum from a strategic level down to a tactical level may be better represented as overlapping constructs on a spectrum of understanding, each with their own approaches to data capture and analysis.

Technologies are revolutionizing the way health care is managed and delivered, especially in the areas of telemedicine and home care. Many at-home e-Health products are being developed and brought to market, but one of the factors that prevent widespread adoption is the need for customized solutions that result in lack of economies of scale. In this paper, we describe our Web-ENabled Devices and Instruments (WENDI) platform that addresses this challenge, utilizing technologies that promote low-cost and rapid development of web-based applications.

Large groups in society lack the necessary skills to be sufficiently self-reliant and are in need of personal assistance. These groups could be supported by information and information technology (ICT), but only if this technology is designed to fit their (cognitive) abilities. Inclusive design theory and methods have already been developed in research contexts, but there is still a gap between theory and practice. There is a need for a practical aid, that helps to create awareness of inclusive design among ICT developers, and offers easy-to-use information and tools to actually apply the methods for diverse target groups. This paper describes the first steps taken towards an inclusive design toolbox for developing ICT applications that offer cognitive support for self-reliance. Dutch ICT companies were interviewed and participated in a co-design workshop, leading to a number of initial needs, user requirements, and an on-line community, that form input for further development of the toolbox.

Recent evidence supports the positive effects of external intervention during specific sleep stages (e.g. enhanced memory consolidation and depression relief). To enable timely intervention, online automated sleep staging is required and preferably with short latency. In this paper, we propose an approach to achieve this based on the analysis of spectral features of a single electroencephalogram (EEG) channel and the use of Gaussian Mixture Models. We compare among several choices for the EEG signal location, the type of spectral features, and the duration of the signal segment (epoch) that is required to automatically identify the sleep stage. The performance metric used for comparison purposes is the kappa statistic, which measures the agreement between the automatic and manual sleep staging. The performance is higher when central EEG locations (C3, C4), longer epochs, and the power in five frequency bands are used. However, good results (kappa=0.6) can also be obtained for an epoch duration of 12 seconds.

Stroke frequently causes apraxia, particularly if it affects the left-hemisphere. A major symptom of apraxia is the presence of deficits during the execution and organization of activities of daily living (ADL). These deficits may substantially limit the capacity of stroke patients to live independently in their home environment. Traditional rehabilitative techniques to improve ADL function revolve around physical and occupational therapy. This approach is labor intensive and constraints therapy to clinical environments. The CogWatch system provides an supplementary means of rehabilitation that is based on instrumented objects and ambient devices that are part of patients’ everyday environment and can be used to monitor behavior and progress as well as re-train them to carry out ADL through persistent multimodal feedback.

We present an approach using room lighting for strengthening individual daily structure or changing structure of daily routines if required. This new healing environment concept includes a monitoring system based on standard passive infrared presence sensors as well as a zonal and ambient room lighting system using direct and indirect lighting with variable light intensities and light colors.

The importance of usability for older adults in therapeutic games has not been well explored. Aspects of game-related usability that go beyond typical considerations are a need for challenge, complexity, adoption by novices, motivation for extensive use, and enjoyment. Benefits to considering usability as it pertains to this special population may have long-term benefits for personal independence, maintenance of skills, and rehabilitation from injury. We outline areas we deem critical as a first step to utilizing what we know of older adult use of games for training purposes to facilitate a conversation between designers and researchers for creating and improving games for older players.

Identifying user-friendly use cases for technologies under development is often a difficult endeavor, especially when designing healing environments for the elderly, due to the absence of comparable technologies and the little technology experience in the target group. The principles of user centered design (UCD) have been successfully applied with professionals and lead users, but it is much more difficult for the development of healing environments like AAL-systems (ambient assisted living systems). This article describes the user-centered development of use cases for an innovative lighting system (“Guiding-Light”) aimed at increasing the independence and well-being of senior adults.

A chair with armrests is an important object required by aged people for sitting, when their physical strength decline gradually. Users’ emotions can be evoked by touching material of the armrest. This study attempts to explore aged people’s emotional responses as evoked by interaction with materials on armrests. An experiment was conducted to explore emotional responses evoked by touching six different materials of a armrest between aged people and young adults. The results indicate that a chair’s armrests made from fabric can enhance users’ pleasure senses better, as compared with the other five materials. The result also showed that aged people were willing to give a higher mean score on pleasure than young adults were.