Many tasks are hazardous to human life such as bomb disposal, piloting a fighter aircraft and operation in extreme environmental conditions. With advances in technology, the human can now accomplish these tasks through teleoperation from a remote console. However, there is a need to ensure that the user interface between the human and machine is adequate for remote control. An example of this is the provision of stereoscopic 3-dimensional (3D) displays for remote operation in place of standard two-dimensional (2D) displays to facilitate depth perception tasks in remote freight handling. This paper reports a study on the effects of such displays on remote freight handling performance with respect to horizontal positioning and vertical placement of containers. A reduced scale simulation test rig was designed and constructed for the test. The results of the study revealed that stereoscopic displays enhanced significantly subject performance of vertical container placement in terms of task completion time and container handling accuracy. However, a stereoscopic display was found to be ineffective in enhancing task performance of horizontal container positioning.
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