Recent Investigations of User Interface Improvements for a Military Wearable Computer System

摘要

The development of an effective military wearable computer system involves many complex issues, including efficiently providing functionality to the user in stressful and life-critical situations. An iterative collaboration involving subject matter experts and human factors specialists was conducted to rapidly develop human-computer interaction improvements to the system. This paper addresses selected key issues that were explored during the development. In an effort to provide the user with functionality characteristics appropriate for certain environmental or task situations, audible presentation of information was studied. The effectiveness and attention load required of the user to perform land navigation using either visual or audible information in varying conditions was evaluated. During the evaluation, the user performed a primary land navigation task in a simulated environment with the aid of either a visual map or an auditory cue while responding to a secondary identification of friend or foe task. An automated data collection method was used to document the subject performance during the land navigation evaluation. Preliminary results from the tests indicate that the audible presentation of land navigation information is an effective supplement to visual presentation of land navigation information.