Touch Input Screens and Animations: More Efficient and Humanized Computer Interactions for Atc(o)

In this paper, we present the joint use of a touch input screen, animations and graphic design for ATCO working position. Touch input screens have been used for long time on traditional Controller Working Positions (CWP). We think they can be used profitably for tasks currently dedicated to the mouse in modern CWP. As yet, animations are hardly used in ATC Human Computer Interactions (HCI). Yet, they can be very useful by dramatically lowering the controller cognitive load and increasing mutual awareness. Graphic design is also very important to improve readability, to increase the quantity of displayable information and to enhance user acceptability. We first describe a prototype which allows users to organize an electronic strip board using their fingers to move the strips. We then present the original method used for quickly specifying the use of both the touch screen and animations. We describe an experiment which compared mouse and touch screen usage for managing an electronic strip board. We lastly conclude with other results, first full scale applications of animations and our future work. WHY SHOULD WE USE TOUCH INPUT SCREEN FOR ATC(O)? At the CENA, the CINDI experiment [5] had demonstrated that performances with a mouse (duration, errors) dramatically decrease when users are under high stress and cognitive load. In addition, a mouse can hardly be shared by more than one user. A mouse also hides what the user is doing: it is difficult to perceive and understand what a colleague is doing on her computer with her mouse. A mouse also maintains a distance between the user’s hand and the screen where he manipulates graphical objects. Touch screens are a good alternative with many advantages. The user points directly, with her finger, the selected graphic object on the screen. This action is closer to grasping or pointing real objects: it is seamless, intuitive and requires no training. A good HCI based on touch screen does not require the user to be precise. The cognitive load and motor coordination is lower than with a mouse. The user can point with both hands, either to optimize her task or to use her left hand when the right one is not available. Two or three users, sitting or standing, can alternatively share a touch screen. Its use is obvious for anybody close enough. Theses features increase mutual awareness which is highly important in ATCO work. WHY SHOULD WE USE ANIMATIONS FOR ATC(O) Some very simple animations are used in the ATC field. For example, in France, flights blinking on the radar screen indicates Short Term Conflict Alert. In some airport tower, data displayed in flight labels are switched every 2 seconds to show more information. ERATO [4] proposes another kind of animation: by dragging a flight on a radar display the user can extrapolate the situation. Every flight moves forward according to the user drag&drop. Animations, slightly more complex, can punctuate dialogs to make them more natural. The first example is the Mac Intosh Finder. It is using animation since 1983 to emphasize closing a directory or trashing a file. A more recent example is provided by Excel 1997. When you insert (or suppress) a line in a spreadsheet, bottom lines move down (or up). The same kind of prosodic animations [8] enhance a column insertion (or deletion). Unfortunately, when you delete a block of 4 cells, there is no more animation. It is really upsetting and frustrating: You don’t see anymore what happens. Animations use your perceptive abilities. Without animation you must use your cognitive abilities: you must read and memorize information and then interact and finally read again and compare. In the same way, in the ATC field, animations can be very useful to ATCO by lowering their cognitive load. Animations addresses the controller’s perceptive abilities usually under-employed by many modern HCI. Animations also increase mutual awareness by emphasizing a user’s actions to another user. An emblematic example is the electronic strip board on a computer screen: when a controller organizes his electronic strips, the lack of animation makes it costly, if not unacceptable, to use. With animations, interactions become straightforward and both controllers of the CWP really see what happens. THE DIGISTRIPS STUDY To demonstrate the utility of both touch screens and animations, we decided to apply theses techniques to an electronic strip board. The user can arrange her strips with imprecise movements of her fingers and the system completes the ordering with the help of animations. To better identify the user needs, we used two low-fidelity prototyping techniques, inspired by Mackay works [9]. We then developed a software prototype that we experimented to compare touch screen and mouse for managing the electronic strip board. The actual strip board Figure 1 shows the current (paper) strip board in use at Athis -Mons, one of the five enroute control centers in France. Paper strips are held in strip holders which fit into rails (the strip board). Controllers can easily push the strip holders, rearrange them and shift the paper strips in the strip holders. [9] describes the importance of paper flight strips for French ATCO. Figure 1: flight strips in strip board at Athis -Mons