Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. Kristof Van Laerhoven, University of Siegen
Prof. Dr. Tilo Mentler, Hochschule Trier

The main objectives of this project are to derive a pattern language for scalable interaction design in control rooms and to design a wearable framework for control room operators, determining how wearable technologies can be used both to implement the aforementioned design patterns and to evaluate their usage in-situ and unsupervised. As part of these studies, control room operators’ cognitive load and affective state are modeled on a user-worn computer and used to influence information flow to the operator. This attention model is used to present alarms and other control room events appropriately. The wearable framework also assists operators in log-keeping of processes/tasks at hand, using wearable sensors that detect specific manual actions. The resulting design patterns and their realization with the aid of wearable assistants will be validated and evaluated in highly realistic but reproducible settings with actual control room operators, with respect to usability and user experience. User experience research is guided by the question: Do control room operators perceive a wearable assistant based on design patterns as patronization (with respect to autonomy or expertise) or support (with respect to safety)?