Eye Tracking During A Complex Aviation Task For Insights Into Information Processing

Our research develops objective psychophysiological measures of pilots'situation awareness using eye tracking to enhance data-driven, competency-based training and assessment. Advancements in eye tracking enhance aviation training by monitoring attentional states, like fatigue, cognitive load, and mind wandering, improving pilot performance and safety. Integrated eye tracking in simulators, VR, and AR enables realistic assessment of pilot mental state and scanning behaviors, advancing research beyond labs into actual cockpits and high-fidelity simulations.

A key challenge is area of interest segmentation and label validation, which are labor intensive, but crucial. Our experiment explores an early stage automation method requiring further development. My work supports eye tracking in aviation training to assess pilots'information processing, attention allocation, stress management, and gaze behaviors that indicate risks affecting aircraft monitoring and safety.

To begin, turn the flight simulator and projector screens on. On the Instruction Screen, press the Presets tab and verify that the required Position and/or Weather presets are available. Next, turn on the collection laptop and log in with the credentials.

When prompted, either select a preexisting profile, create a new one for a new participant, or select the Guest option to overwrite its last calibration. To calibrate the glasses, open the eye tracker case and take out the glasses. Then select the nosepiece.

Connect the USB to the Micro-USB cable from the laptop to the glasses. Then locate the black calibration box inside the eye tracker case. Place the glasses inside the calibration box.

On the collection laptop, in the eye tracking Hub, choose Tools and then Device Calibration. Press Start on the pop-up window to begin calibration. Once calibration is complete, remove the glasses from the box.

To ensure a proper nosepiece fit, instruct the participant to sit in the cockpit and put on the glasses. Check the adjust fit of your glasses box on the bottom right side of the screen. If the fit is marked as excellent, proceed to the next step.

Otherwise, click the box. Then instruct the participant to follow the onscreen fit recommendations, adjust the nosepiece, ensure the glasses fit comfortably, and look straight ahead at the laptop. Now, pinch the nosepiece in the middle, slide it out from the glasses, and slide another one in.

To follow the fixed gaze calibration mode for the study, instruct the participant to move their head, so that the box overlaps with the black square and aligns. Then ask the participant to focus their gaze on the crosshair inside the black square and press the Space Bar. Then check that the headset is hooked up to the jack on the left underside of the instrument panel.

Prior to eyeball calibration, navigate to the Parameter box in the eye tracking Hub. Check the Calibration mode, and select ether Fixed gaze or Fixed head as appropriate for the study. Ensure the calibration points are displayed as a three-by-three grid totaling nine points.

Verify that the Validation mode matches the Calibration mode. Then examine the eye tracking outputs, and ensure all required parameters for the study are checked using the tick boxes. In the eye tracking Hub, click File, Settings, and Eye tracking.

Check that the sampling rate is set to 250 hertz. Press the Validate your setup box, and check that the mean absolute error is less than one degree, then save the calibration to the profile. For data collection, give the participant clear instructions about the trial or flight path, including how to adjust the settings on the instrument panel before the simulation starts.

On the Instruction Screen, press the orange Stopped button to start data collection. Confirm that the color changes to green and the text updates to Flying. On the collection laptop, press Start Recording to synchronize the eye tracker data with the flight simulator data.

When the participant has completed their circuit and landed, wait until the aircraft has come to a complete stop. On the Instruction Screen, press the green Flying button to stop data collection. Confirm that the color changes back to orange, and the text updates to Stopped.

Run an eye tracking batch script to manually define Areas of Interest, or AOIs, for gaze mapping. The script will open a new window for key frame selection. Scroll through the video and choose a frame that clearly shows all the key AOIs to be analyzed.

Follow the onscreen instructions to draw a rectangle over a region of the frame that is visible throughout the entire video, unique, and remains stable. Then draw a rectangle for each AOI in the frame, one at a time. Name each rectangle accordingly.

Use the Add more button to add new AOIs and press Done on the last one. Start the script to process the AOIs and generate fixation data, which will generate a plot showing the saccades and fixations over the video. Emergency task conditions significantly reduced the success rate of landings compared to basic conditions.

Completion time was significantly shorter in emergency trials compared to basic trials. Landing error was also significantly higher in emergency trials compared to basic trials. The subjective situation awareness score was significantly lower during emergency tasks compared to basic tasks.

The situation awareness supply and demand increased from the basic to the emergency trials, and situation awareness understanding decreased from the basic to the emergency trials. Gaze metrics revealed significant reductions in dwell time on key instruments like the altimeter and attitude indicators under emergency conditions. Blink rate increased significantly under emergency conditions compared to basic conditions.

Advanced gaze metrics, like SGE and GTE, were significantly reduced under emergency conditions.