Abstract
This quarter, our issue explores the multiple ways in which humans can interact with display systems. Traditionally, visual and auditory cues are primary methods of communicating information to which our limbs and perhaps voices react. Authors Peter Hancock, Ben Lawson, Roger Cholewiak, Linda Elliott, Jan van Erp, Bruce Mortimer, Angus Rupert, and Elizabeth Redden suggest that the visual and auditory channels are becoming overloaded in some environments, such as in military systems. By incorporating other sensory methods, the “bandwidth of human–machine communication can be increased significantly.” Their article, “Tactile Cuing to Augment Multisensory Human–Machine Interaction,” explores the knowledge and principles of tactile cuing. The authors share their experience with applying the additional sense to visual and auditory cues in military, aviation, and medical applications. The article concludes by noting how tactile displays may enhance cognition, and the authors provide guidelines for designers.
In contrast to Hancock et al.’s promotion of tactile input, “Look, Don’t Touch: Performance Evaluation of a Gaze-Based Interface Control System” by Melissa Smith, Patrick Mead, Peter Squire, Robert Coons, and Allison Mead explores gaze-based control. The authors introduce a system to leverage the speed and intent of eye movements to control a display, and they present the viability of a gaze-based switching method between monitors versus a manual keyboard. Law enforcement and military personnel are especially exposed to multiple-screen monitoring, needing to quickly and effectively switch between camera views of surveillance systems.
We have added the requirement in our author guidelines that color coding should be complemented with shape or pattern fill.
Our third feature article pertains to physical work in the medical arena and addresses an important area that may touch many of us on a personal level. Jenny Hjalmarson and Stefan Lundberg share their investigation of body postures of home care workers who assist people at the toilet. The task is high risk for the helper, and their article describes the postural findings that explain the injuries that occur. The authors conclude with practical recommendations for decreasing the risk of these injuries. They also state that intervention in this area will only become more important as the elderly population increases.
One of our two Views articles is by Betty Murphy, who has made an important observation that we might talk the talk but not walk the walk. As noted in the title of her article, she claims that “The Time Has Come for Redundant Coding in Print Publications.” As Betty states, although complementing color with another code has been long understood in the computer–human interaction world, she has noticed that print has not paid much attention to this practice. Now that print is accessed online, the problem of lack of redundancy has become more obvious. EID is culpable, so we have added the requirement in our author guidelines that color coding should be complemented with shape or pattern fill. Please read her thoughtful and well-referenced piece. Thank you, Betty!
EID is a good forum by which to inform our HF/E community of standards that might be of general interest. We are pleased to have a second Views piece by Teresa Bellingar and Mark Benden that brings to our attention the new ANSI/BIFMA Standard for Testing of Educational Seating.
