PervaSafe Computing: Scaling control rooms from locations to spaces of control
Principal Investigators
Prof. Dr. Kristof van Laerhoven, University of Siegen (Homepage)
Prof. Dr. Tilo Mentler, Hochschule Trier (Homepage)
Whether an ambulance is needed, traffic needs to be managed or an uninterrupted supply of electricity, gas and water needs to be ensured, control rooms are vital to the safety and well-being of people in various areas of life. However, they are usually understood as closed units, often even without windows, in which human operators interact with stationary and desktop-based interfaces. For various reasons (e.g. intelligent environments with data and interaction possibilities, better collaboration between field staff and operators, need for more flexible working models) it seems appropriate to choose a broader perspective and research “beyond the control room”. This application scales research “beyond the control room” in several ways. We aim to:
- Scale reproducible control room interaction studies by comparing and measuring the effects of different simulations and evaluation settings in terms of immersion, participant physiological responses, and subjective realism.
- Control room interactions on the To scale people by including features that allow operators to self-manage their attentional state.
- To scale operator interactions beyond physical control rooms by considering interaction opportunities based on collaboration with actors based outside the control room and view control rooms as spaces and not as places of control.