<p>This thesis is about the design and evaluation of a graphical display that aims at showing the behavior of a complex automated system in action. A problem with complex automation is that it sometimes surprises the user by performing actions that were not expected. The reason of this is poor communication of system activities. In order to study how to design for anticipative automation communication a prototype around automatic vehicle driving on highways was designed and evaluated. The design work focused on designing a display that contained anticipation as a use quality. This resulted in a display design that aimed at representing the working scene in such a way that the user would be able to recognize and compare the system view with the real situation. In order to accomplish this, three layers of information were merged together in the display, these layers were; the automaton’s image of how the world is seen, the way that image is perceived and interpreted in terms of system action necessity and out of that the actions that the system plans to perform in the near future. The evaluation of the design prototype showed that it was possible to anticipate system actions but that the information detail level was insufficient for the evaluators to completely trust system decisions. The evaluation also showed that trust can be created by letting the automaton represent the perception of the situation in such a way that the user is able to compare it to personal experience from performing the task manually. Anticipation can be created through showing what future the automaton is expecting and what actions that needs to be performed in order to reach or maintain the general system task or goal.</p>

The author narrative and the player narrative are distinct and separate parts that make up the whole of videogame literature. The videogame medium encourages a mixed-media understanding of conventions and the rejection of essentialism that leads to, inspires, and facilitates the player narrative. Videogame literatures require discreet actions that, as part of any possible reading, the player must do-- and in doing the player must make a choice with mind and body that involves a human-to-machine expression of agency within constraints that define the player narrative. So the decision making process in videogame storytelling is that human-to-machine interaction that can be understood as both the means by which the videogame story progresses, and the process by which the player wields his or her narrative within the procedural possibility space. Videogame literary analysis requires understanding how players make those decisions, understanding how the player leverages media conventions in order to wield power over the narrative, and understanding what role the player has in videogame storytelling. The choice dynamics of a videogame narrative are the key narrative elements within videogame literature that provide players and researchers tools for evaluating choice opportunities within videogame literature toward forming a better understanding of the space between and connection to the author narrative and the player narrative. All of these analyses combine to form a picture of decision making processes in videogame literature that are complex and contradictory path making endeavors that define the narrative experience in videogame literature, and the interconnected dynamics of the author and player narrative space.

This thesis is about the design and evaluation of a graphical display that aims at showing the behavior of a complex automated system in action. A problem with complex automation is that it sometimes surprises the user by performing actions that were not expected. The reason of this is poor communication of system activities. In order to study how to design for anticipative automation communication a prototype around automatic vehicle driving on highways was designed and evaluated. The design work focused on designing a display that contained anticipation as a use quality. This resulted in a display design that aimed at representing the working scene in such a way that the user would be able to recognize and compare the system view with the real situation. In order to accomplish this, three layers of information were merged together in the display, these layers were; the automaton’s image of how the world is seen, the way that image is perceived and interpreted in terms of system action necessity and out of that the actions that the system plans to perform in the near future. The evaluation of the design prototype showed that it was possible to anticipate system actions but that the information detail level was insufficient for the evaluators to completely trust system decisions. The evaluation also showed that trust can be created by letting the automaton represent the perception of the situation in such a way that the user is able to compare it to personal experience from performing the task manually. Anticipation can be created through showing what future the automaton is expecting and what actions that needs to be performed in order to reach or maintain the general system task or goal.

Cranes occupy a crucial role within the industry. They are used throughout the world in thousands of shipping yards, construction sites, and warehouses. However, payload oscillation inherent to all cranes makes it challenging for human operators to manipulate payloads quickly, accurately, and safely. Manipulation difficulty is also increased by non-intuitive crane control interfaces. Intuitiveness is characterized by ease of learning, simplicity, and predictability. This thesis addresses the issue of intuitive crane control in two parts: the design of the interface, and the design of the controller. Three novel types of crane control interface are presented. These interfaces allow an operator to drive a crane by moving his or her hand freely in space. These control interfaces are dependent on machine vision and radio-frequency-based technology. The design of the controller based on empirical means is also discussed. Various control architectures were explored. It was concluded that a controller with an input shaper within a Proportional Derivative feedback loop produced the desirable crane response. The design of this controller is complemented with a structured design methodology based on root locus analysis and computer numerical methods. The intuitive crane control systems were implemented on a 10-ton industrial bridge crane; simulation and experimental results are presented for validation purposes.

Everyday technologies are intended for use by everyone with no specific training and minimal instructions. Prior research (e.g., Norman, 2002; Polson&Lewis, 1990) suggests that these technologies are usable if users can leverage their prior experience. However, different users will leverage difference experiences to operate the same technologies (Blackler, Popovic,&Mahar, 2003a). This dissertation systematically examined use of prior knowledge in the operation of everyday technology by diverse users, specifically users of different ages and experience levels. In Study 1 encounters with everyday technologies were self-reported by younger adults, older adults with low technology experience, and older adults with high technology experience. Comparisons of technology repertoires for each participant group indicated similar usage between younger adults and high tech older adults that differed in expected domains. Low tech older adults used fewer technologies, but overall they used more than expected across domains. Prior experience generally helped participants have successful encounters, but in some cases introduced problems. In Study 2 video recorded observations were made during participant interactions with exemplar everyday technologies. Participants with more relevant experience generally performed better. Older adults exhibited more inter-individual variability in their performance levels. Appropriate use of prior experience, an unassuming approach to the interaction, and using information on the technology generally led to more successful performance. Results from both studies can provide theoretical and practical support for more effective design that reflects how the target population will use their prior experience.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to explore how support systems enable human control within normal flight operations. The thesis focuses on the use of memory supports during flight, such as a handheld computing device, memory strategies and checklists. The support systems are studied from the theoretical perspective of Human Factors. In particular, decision making theories have contributed to the thesis. From previous research it is found that feedback to the operator in case of a human error is essential to keep him or her in a safe sequence of decisions and actions.</p><p>To facilitate the pilots’ tasks in cockpit, computing devices are out on the market. Several of the technical aids are computers installed in cockpit whereas others are smaller, portable devices with hardware not specifically designed for use in cockpit. Jump-seat observations have been performed at an airline company to explore the pilots’ work process in cockpit where a handheld computing device, with hardware not specifically designed for cockpit, is in use. Subsequent semi-structured interviews were conducted to receive the pilots’ experiences of findings from the observations and to receive descriptions of decisions and support systems.</p><p>The thesis includes a description of flight operations from a pilot perspective. The main focus is on operations in the preflight phase where the new computing device is used. Identified characteristics in flight operations are factors such as cooperation, communication, interruptions. Furthermore, identified factors in the decision making were such as routine, environmental constraints, discrete alternatives and dependency between decisions. Feedback points during the sequence of tasks performed with the handheld computing device were distinguished. These points are moments when feedback is possible. For example, when the pilots cross-check tasks they receive feedback from each other. It was found that the pilots did not use every opportunity to receive feedback on their performance. The reason of the non-used feedback point was that it was not required by the Standard Operating Procedures or by any functions or design of the device. Within flight operations in general, it was found that the most important techniques to detect a human error such as a memory lapse were by pilots’ earlier experiences, the use of checklists and by receiving feedback from the other pilot.</p>

This thesis presents a novel two stage multimodal speech enhancement system, making use of both visual and audio information to filter speech, and explores the extension of this system with the use of fuzzy logic to demonstrate proof of concept for an envisaged autonomous, adaptive, and context aware multimodal system. The design of the proposed cognitively inspired framework is scalable, meaning that it is possible for the techniques used in individual parts of the system to be upgraded and there is scope for the initial framework presented here to be expanded. In the proposed system, the concept of single modality two stage filtering is extended to include the visual modality. Noisy speech information received by a microphone array is first pre-processed by visually derived Wiener filtering employing the novel use of the Gaussian Mixture Regression (GMR) technique, making use of associated visual speech information, extracted using a state of the art Semi Adaptive Appearance Models (SAAM) based lip tracking approach. This pre-processed speech is then enhanced further by audio only beamforming using a state of the art Transfer Function Generalised Sidelobe Canceller (TFGSC) approach. This results in a system which is designed to function in challenging noisy speech environments (using speech sentences with different speakers from the GRID corpus and a range of noise recordings), and both objective and subjective test results (employing the widely used Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) measure, a composite objective measure, and subjective listening tests), showing that this initial system is capable of delivering very encouraging results with regard to filtering speech mixtures in difficult reverberant speech environments. Some limitations of this initial framework are identified, and the extension of this multimodal system is explored, with the development of a fuzzy logic based framework and a proof of concept demonstration implemented. Results show that this proposed autonomous,adaptive, and context aware multimodal framework is capable of delivering very positive results in difficult noisy speech environments, with cognitively inspired use of audio and visual information, depending on environmental conditions. Finally some concluding remarks are made along with proposals for future work.

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