Internship Programmes
 
Design Considerations for Audio display (sounds alerts) on Operator Control Units (OCU)

Discipline: Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Psychology

Project Description:
It is foreseen that soldiers will have to control multiple robots and currently process large amounts of information in search and rescue operations. Due to heavy workload of soldiers in actions, the OCU has to become relatively dynamic to reduce information overload and increase the situational awareness. The largest proportion of information from the environment is acquired by visual perception, which is the most developed and most commonly used. However, it is insufficient to rely solely on vision to fully perceive the environment. It is postulated that audio display can significantly supplement visual displays due to its Omni-directional and light independent nature. With intuitive and directional audio cues complimenting visual displays, human performance can be maximised.

This project aims to understand the types of audio displays that can significantly improve human performance in search and rescue operations? What type of information is most appropriate to communicate by audio displays? How can audio display enhance situation awareness (SA) and decision making?

The challenge of the project:
1. To do an extensive literature review on auditory displays
2. To understand user requirements and translate requirements into innovative design concepts
3. To carry out experimentation for usability studies if required

Pre-requisite:
Keen interest in Human Factors Engineering