Academic literature on the topic 'Video display terminals – Safety measures'

A survey was administered to two large groups of employees, one a group of health care employees and the other a group of employees from a large insurance firm. The survey was used to determine whether video display terminal (VDT) operators experience greater psychosomatic distress, job tension, job dissatisfaction, and strain than nonoperators or employees who operate VDTs infrequently. After controlling for demographic factors, tenure, and role strain variables, findings suggest that hours of VDT use has an impact on employee well-being, though role strain was more consistently related to outcome measures.

The occupational use of video display terminals (VDTs) has been associated with the increasing incidence of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders, often called cumulative trauma disorders. To guide clinical and policy decisions about the prevention and treatment of these VDT related disorders, valid and economic measures of total daily VDT use and VDT related job tasks such as data entry or editing will be important. In this study of newspaper reporters and copy editors (n=83), VDT use was measured with employee self reports and by sampling the work behaviors of a subsample of employees. Behavioral sampling estimated VDT use as a characteristic of the job as opposed to a characteristic of individual employee performance. Overall, the two techniques of measuring occupational VDT use compared favorably, with the exception that self reported hours of VDT use tended to exceed the hours of use estimated by behavioral observation for employees who were younger and those who reported greater job demands. The findings suggest that behavioral sampling is a valid technique for estimating VDT use as a job characteristic.

This study evaluated six anti-glare filters for video display terminals. Subjective evaluations were made of the brightness, sharpness, contrast, color, glare and preference for each filter, as well as objective measurements of luminance, MTFA, contrast and glare. Overall, participants preferred anti-reflection coated, circular polarizer and nylon mesh filters to an etched plastic filter and to no filter. Subjective ratings of color, glare, and sharpness were found to contribute most to ratings of preference. Subjective and objective ratings of brightness, contrast, glare and sharpness were found to be moderately correlated. The focus of this work was to understand the relationship between certain physical variables and subjective measures of the effects of anti-glare technologies.

There are more concerns about possible health effects related to electromagnetic fields from computer monitors and other video display terminals because of the widespread using of computers in laboratories, offices and internet halls. This research aims to detect the effect of electromagnetic field radiations in these halls and laboratories and study the successful ways of minimizing its negative health effect on human health. The research has been performed on both the mathematical calculations and practical measurements. The obtaining results show that the practical measurements are consistent with the mathematical calculations results. Comparison of these results with the safety standard guideline limits shows that they are within the acceptable espousing limits recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and that means there is no health risk from exposure to these fields if the exposure is within the acceptable limits

Extraordinary and unprecedented public health measures have been implemented to contain the ongoing spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There is paramount importance of cooperation and population engagement in reducing disease infection rates and relieving an outbreak’s burden on society. The civil society’s engagement may be achieved through disaster education interventions. In this cross-sectional study, a pre-post questionnaire was used to investigate the impact of a brief educational intervention on knowledge, perceived knowledge, perceived safety, and the individual resilience of the population relating to the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of the study display the benefits of the educational intervention to include a significant overall increase in all examined variables. The study also reviewed the overall trust of the public concerning the main responding authorities, as well as practices concerning protective measures for COVID-19. This study demonstrates that educational interventions, such as the brief video, provide an easily implementable design and effective means for educating and empowering the public and should, thus, be considered as a component of future outbreak responses.

Participatory ergonomics is a flexible means for the achievement of many diverse goals in turbulent technological environments. It is a macroergonomic approach to the implementation of technology in organizational systems which requires that end-users be highly involved in developing and implementing the technology. The notion of participation offers the promise of tremendous potential gains for the organization, the worker, and even the economic well-being of the greater society. Such pervasive and important technological innovations as the use of computers and their concomitant video display terminals can, in spite of their usefulness, lead to many occupational health and safety problems. Cumulative trauma disorders appear to be an associated dysfunction in modern industry, and effective health and safety solutions to many of these problems are highly important, both to the organization and especially to the people in it. It is proposed that the use of participation and worker involvement in the solution of such problems is a powerful and promising tool. There is no one best way to employ worker participation. It is contingent upon the nature of the problem itself, the work system, the job design presently in place, the environment in which the work is done, the training of the worker, and a myriad of other variables. From the available empirical evidence, a participation typology is postulated. The successful implementation of participatory ergonomics and other participatory arrangements requires the empowerment and enablement of people to make decisions concerning their work and to implement and evaluate them. Several participatory approaches to worker involvement are presented which address work system and job design factors, design of the work environment, and training of VDT operators. These approaches are discussed in the context of a systems approach to the prevention of WMSDs. The reduction and/or prevention of cumulative trauma disorders such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders is a matter of great concern in modern organizational life, both from the point of view of productivity concerns and also from that of the humanization of work. The solution of occupational health and safety problems will not only lead to increased organizational effectiveness, but should help provide for a far better realization of human potential.

The FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany saw the largest display of domestic security since 1945. More than 250 000 police officers from the state and federal police, 7000 military guards, 20 000 private security contractors and an unknown number of intelligence service officers operated in the 12 host cities during the four-week event. In addition, more than 20 000 volunteers took part in security and safety measures, constituting what have become known as ‘pop-up armies’. Surveillance technologies were deployed, including but not limited to airborne warning and control system planes (AWACS), a variety of security robots, video surveillance cameras and radio frequency identification chips (RFID). Data banks stored more than 250 000 personal data files of FIFA employees and another 10 million of those persons applying for tickets. The paper first describes how, since the early 20th century, FIFA has been embracing neo-liberalism as a ‘neo-communitarian entrepreneur’. Secondly, it analyses how FIFA enabled itself to set the preconditions for candidate and host cities to carry out the event. Thirdly, it develops the concept of ‘legacy’ in order to allow for an understanding of the World Cup’s positive and negative impacts for all stakeholders involved. Fourthly, it examines the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a sports-related ‘security assemblage’, deciphering why parts of the assemblage were dismantled whereas others remained after the World Cup was over. Finally, it draws some conclusions about the role of FIFA as an incubator for a ‘sustained securitisation’ of host and post-host cities.

Background: A recent National Highway Traffic & Safety Administration (NHTSA) report states that 10% of fatal crashes and 18% of injury crashes were reported as distraction-affected crashes. In that same year, 3,179 people were killed and an estimated 431,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers, many of which involved secondary visual displays (NHTSA, 2016). Augmented reality (AR) head-up displays (HUD) promise to be less distractive than traditional in-vehicle displays since they do not take drivers’ eyes off the road (Gabbard, Fitch, & Kim, 2014). However, empirical studies have reported possible negative consequences of AR HUDs, in part, due to AR graphics’ salience (Sharfi & Shinar, 2014), frequent changes (Wolffsohn, McBrien, Edgar, & Stout, 1998), and visual clutter (Burnett & Donkor, 2012). Moreover, current in-vehicle display assessment methods which are based on eye-off-road time measures (NHTSA, 2012), cannot capture this unique challenge. Objective: This work aims to propose a new method for the assessment of AR HUDs by quantifying both positive (informing drivers) and negative (distracting drivers) consequences of AR HUDs which might not be captured by current in-vehicle display assessment methods. Method: We proposed a new way of quantifying the distraction potential of AR HUDs by measuring driver situation awareness with operational improvements on the situation awareness global assessment technique (Endsley, 2012) to suit AR usability evaluations. A human-subject experiment was conducted in a driving simulator to apply the proposed method and to evaluate two AR HUD interfaces for pedestrian collision warning. The AR warning interfaces were prototyped by the augmented video technique (Soro, Rakotonirainy, Schroeter, & Wollstdter, 2014). Twenty-four participants drove while interacting with different types of AR pedestrian collision warning interfaces (no warning, bounding box, and virtual shadow). Drivers’ situation awareness, confidence, and workload were measured and compared to the no warning condition. Results: Only one of the warning interface designs, the virtual shadow (Kim, Isleib, & Gabbard, 2016), improved driver situation awareness about pedestrians which were cued by the AR HUD, not affecting situation awareness about other environmental elements which were not augmented by the HUD. The experiment also showed drivers’ overconfidence bias while interacting with the bounding box which is another warning interface design. The empirical user study did not provide any evidence for reduced driver workload when AR warnings were given. Conclusion: Our initial human-subject study demonstrated a potential of the proposed method in quantifying both positive and negative consequences of AR HUDs on driver cognitive processes. More importantly, the experiment showed that AR interfaces can have both positive and negative consequences on driver situation awareness depending upon how we design perceptual forms of graphical elements. Application: The proposed assessment methods for AR HUDs can inform not only comparative evaluation among design alternatives but also assist in incrementally improving design iterations to better support drivers’ information needs, situation awareness, and in turn, performance, and safety.

For improving the generality, expandability and accuracy, the general embedded intelligent monitoring system of tower crane is developed. The system can be applied to different kinds of tower cranes running at any lifting ratio, can be initialized using U disk with the information of tower crane, and fit the lifting torque curve automatically. In dangerous state, the system can sent out alarm signals with sounds and lights, and cut off power by sending signals to PLC through communication interface RS485. When electricity goes off suddenly, the system can record the real-time operating information automatically, and store them in a black box, which can be taken as the basis for confirming the accident responsibility.In recent years, tower cranes play a more and more important role in the construction of tall buildings, in other construction fields are also more widely used. For the safety of tower cranes, various monitors have been developed for monitoring the running information of crane tower [1-8]. These monitors can’t eliminate the errors caused by temperature variations automatically. The specific tower crane’s parameters such as geometric parameters, alarming parameters, lifting ratio, lifting torque should be embedded into the core program, so a monitor can only be applied to a specific type of tower crane, lack of generality and expansibility.For improving the defects of the existing monitors, a general intelligent monitoring modular system of tower crane with high precision is developed, which can initialize the system automatically, eliminate the temperature drift and creep effect of sensor, and store power-off data, which is the function of black box.Hardware design of the monitoring systemThe system uses modularized design mode. These modules include embedded motherboard module, sensor module, signal processing module, data acquisition module, power module, output control module, display and touch screen module. The hardware structure is shown in figure 1. Figure 1 Hardware structure of the monitoring systemEmbedded motherboard module is the core of the system. The motherboard uses the embedded microprocessor ARM 9 as MCU, onboard SDRAM and NAND Flash. Memory size can be chosen according to users’ needs. SDRAM is used for running procedure and cache data. NAND Flash is used to store embedded Linux operating system, applications and operating data of tower crane. Onboard clock with rechargeable batteries provides the information of year, month, day, hour, minute and second. This module provides time tag for real-time operating data. Most interfaces are taken out by the plugs on the embedded motherboard. They include I/O interface, RS232 interface, RS485 interface, USB interface, LCD interface, Audio interface, Touch Screen interface. Pull and plug structure is used between all interfaces and peripheral equipments, which not only makes the system to be aseismatic, but also makes its configuration flexible. Watch-dog circuit is designed on the embedded motherboard, which makes the system reset to normal state automatically after its crash because of interference, program fleet, or getting stuck in an infinite loop, so the system stability is improved greatly. In order to store operating data when power is down suddenly, the power-down protection circuit is designed. The saved data will be helpful to repeat the accident process later, confirm the accident responsibility, and provide the basis for structure optimization of tower crane.Sensor module is confirmed by the main parameters related to tower crane’s security, such as lifting weight, lifting torque, trolley luffing, lifting height, rotary angle and wind speed. Axle pin shear load cell is chosen to acquire lifting weight signals. Potentiometer accompanied with multi-stopper or incremental encoder is chosen to acquire trolley luffing and lifting height signals. Potentiometer accompanied with multi-stopper or absolute photoelectric encoder is chosen to acquire rotary angle signals. Photoelectric sensor is chosen to acquire wind speed signals. The output signals of these sensors can be 0~5V or 4~20mA analog signals, or digital signal from RS485 bus. The system can choose corresponding signal processing method according to the type of sensor signal, which increases the flexibility on the selection of sensors, and is helpful for the users to expand monitoring objects. If the acquired signal is analog signal, it will be processed with filtering, isolation, anti-interference processing by signal isolate module, and sent to A/D module for converting into digital signals, then transformed into RS485 signal by the communication protocol conversion device according to Modbus protocol. If the acquired signal is digital signal with RS485 interface, it can be linked to RS485 bus directly. All the acquired signals are sent to embedded motherboard for data processing through RS485 bus.The data acquisition module is linked to the data acquisition control module on embedded motherboard through RS485 interface. Under the control of program, the system inquires the sensors at regular intervals, and acquires the operating data of crane tower. Median filter technology is used to eliminate interferences from singularity signals. After analysis and processing, the data are stored in the database on ARM platform.Switch signal can be output to relay module or PLC from output control module through RS485 bus, then each actuator will be power on or power off according to demand, so the motion of tower crane will be under control.Video module is connected with motherboard through TFT interface. After being processed, real-time operating parameters are displayed on LCD. The working time, work cycle times, alarm, overweight and ultar-torque information will be stored into database automatically. For meeting the needs of different users, the video module is compatible with 5.7, 8.4 or 10.4 inches of color display.Touch screen is connected with embedded motherboard by touch screen interface, so human machine interaction is realized. Initialization, data download, alarm information inquire, parameter modification can be finished through touch screen.Speaker is linked with audio interface, thus alarm signals is human voice signal, not harsh buzz.USB interface can be linked to conventional U disk directly. Using U disk, users can upload basic parameters of tower crane, initialize system, download operating data, which provides the basis for the structural optimization and accident analysis. Software design of the monitoring systemAccording to the modular design principle, the system software is divided into grading encryption module, system update module, parameter settings module, calibration module, data acquisition and processor module, lifting parameters monitoring module, alarm query module, work statistics module.Alarm thresholds are guarantee for safety operation of the tower crane. Operating data of tower crane are the basis of service life prediction, structural optimization, accident analysis, accident responsibility confirmation. According to key field, the database is divided into different security levels for security requirements. Key fields are grade encryption with symmetrical encryption algorithm, and data keys are protected with elliptic curve encryption algorithm. The association is realized between the users’ permission and security grade of key fields, which will ensure authorized users with different grades to access the equivalent encrypted key fields. The user who meets the grade can access equivalent encrypted database and encrypted key field in the database, also can access low-grade encrypted key fields. This ensures the confidentiality and integrity of key data, and makes the system a real black box.The system is divided into operating mode and management mode in order to make the system toggle between the two states conveniently. The default state is operating mode. As long as the power is on, the monitoring system will be started by the system guide program, and monitor the operating state of the tower crane. The real-time operating data will be displayed on the display screen. At the dangerous state, warning signal will be sent to the driver through voice alarm and light alarm, and corresponding control signal will be output to execution unit to cut off relevant power for tower crane’s safety.By clicking at the mode switch button on the initial interface, the toggle can be finished between the management mode and the operating mode. Under the management mode, there are 4 grades encrypted modes, namely the system update, alarm query, parameter setting and data query. The driver only can browse relevant information. Ordinary administrator can download the alarm information for further analysis. Senior administrator can modify the alarm threshold. The highest administrator can reinitialize system to make it adapt to different types of tower crane. Only browse and download function are available in the key fields of alarm inquiry, anyone can't modify the data. The overload fields in alarm database are encrypted, only senior administrator can browse. The sensitive fields are prevented from being tampered to the great extent, which will provide the reliable basis for the structural optimization and accident analysis. The system can be initialized through the USB interface. Before initialization, type, structural parameters, alarm thresholds, control thresholds, lifting torque characteristics of tower crane should be made as Excel files and then converted to XML files by format conversion files developed specially, then the XML files are downloaded to U disk. The U disk is inserted into USB interface, then the highest administrator can initialize the system according to hints from system. After initialization, senior administrator can modify structural parameters, alarm thresholds, control thresholds by clicking on parameters setting menu. So long as users can make the corresponding excel form, the system initialization can be finished easily according to above steps and used for monitoring. This is very convenient for user.Tower crane belongs to mobile construction machinery. Over time, sensor signals may have some drift, so it is necessary to calibrate the system regularly for guaranteeing the monitoring accuracy. Considering the tower is a linear elastic structure, sensors are linear sensors,in calibration linear equation is used:y=kx+b (1)where x is sample value of sensor, y is actual value. k, b are calibration coefficients, and are calculated out by two-points method. At running mode, the relationship between x and y is:y=[(y1-y0)/(x1-x0)](x-x0)+y0 (2)After calibration, temperature drift and creep can be eliminated, so the monitoring accuracy is improved greatly.Lifting torque is the most important parameter of condition monitoring of tower crane. Comparing the real-time torque M(L) with rated torque Me(L), the movement of tower crane can be controlled under a safe status.M (L)= Q (L)×L (3)Where, Q(L)is actual lifting weight, L is trolley luffing. Me(L) = Qe(L)×L (4)Where, Q e(L) is rated lifting weight. The design values of rated lifting weight are discrete, while trolley luffing is continuous. Therefore there is a rated lifting weight in any position. According to the mechanical characteristics of tower crane, the rated lifting weight is calculated out at any point by 3 spline interpolation according to the rated lifting weight at design points.When lifting weight or lifting torque is beyond rated value, alarm signal and control signal will be sent out. The hoist motor with high, medium and low speed is controlled by the ratio of lifting weight Q and maximum lifting weight Qmax,so the hoisting speed can be controlled automatically by the lifting weight. The luffing motor with high and low speed is controlled by the ratio of lifting torque M and rated lifting torque Me. Thus the luffing speed can be controlled by the lifting torque automatically. The flow chart is shown in figure 2. Fig. 2 real-time control of lifting weight and lifting torqueWhen accidents take place, power will be off suddenly. It is vital for identifying accident liability to record the operating data at the time of power-off. If measures are not taken to save the operating data, the relevant departments is likely to shirk responsibility. In order to solve the problem, the power-off protection module is designed. The module can save the operating data within 120 seconds automatically before power is off suddenly. In this 120 seconds, data is recorded every 0.1 seconds, and stores in a 2D array with 6 rows 1200 columns in queue method. The elements of the first line are the recent time (year-month-day-hour-minute-second), the elements of the second line to sixth line are lifting weight, lifting torque, trolley luffing, lifting height and wind speed in turn. The initial values are zero, when a set of data are obtained, the elements in the first column are eliminated, the elements in the backward columns move frontwards, new elements are filled into the last column of the array, so the array always saves the operating data at the recent 120 seconds. In order to improve the real-time property of the response, and to extend the service life of the nonvolatile memory chip EEPROM-93C46, the array is cached in volatile flip SDRAM usually. So long as power-off signal produces, the array will be shift to EEPROM, at once.In order to achieve the task, the external interruption thread and the power-off monitoring thread of program is set up, the power-off monitoring thread of program is the highest priority. These two threads is idle during normal operation. When power is off, the power-off monitoring thread of program can be executed immediately. When power-off is monitored by power-off control circuit, the external interruption pins produces interrupt signal. The ARM microprocessor responds to external interrupt request, and wakes up the processing thread of external interruption, then sets synchronized events as informing state. After receiving the synchronized events, the data cached in SDRAM will be written to EEPROM in time.ConclusionThe general intelligence embedded monitoring system of tower crane, which can be applicable to various types of tower crane operating under any lifting rates, uses U disk with the information of the tower crane to finish the system initialization and fits the lifting torque curve automatically. In dangerous state, the system will give out the voice and light alarm, link with the relay or PLC by the RS485 communication interface, and cut off the power. When power is down suddenly, the instantaneous operating data can be recorded automatically, and stored in a black box, which can be taken as the proof for identifying accident responsibility. The system has been used to monitor the "JiangLu" series of tower cranes successfully, and achieved good social and economic benefits.AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank China Natural Science Foundation(50975289), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(20100471229), Hunan science & technology plan, Jianglu Machinery & Electronics Co. Ltd for funding this work.Reference Leonard Bernold. Intelligent Technology for Crane Accident Prevention. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 1997, 9: 122~124.Gu Lichen,Lei Peng,Jia Yongfeng. Tower crane' monitor and control based on multi-sensor. Journal of Vibration, Measurement and Diagnosis. 2006, 26(SUPPL.): 174-178.Wang Ming,Zhang Guiqing,Yan Qiao,et, al. Development of a novel black box for tower crane based on an ARM-based embedded system. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation and Logistics. 2007: 82-87.Wang Renqun, Yin Chenbo, Zhang Song, et, al. Tower Crane Safety Monitoring and Control System Based on CAN Bus. Instrument Techniques and Sensor. 2010(4): 48-51.Zheng Conghai,Li Yanming,Yang Shanhu,et, al. Intelligent Monitoring System for Tower Crane Based on BUS Architecture and Cut IEEE1451 Standard. Computer Measurement & Control. 2010, 18, (9): 1992-1995.Yang Yu,Zhenlian Zhao,Liang Chen. Research and Design of Tower Crane Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis System. 2010 Proceedings of International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence. 2010: 405-408.Yu Yang, Chen Liang, Zhao Zhenlian. Research and design of tower crane condition monitoring and fault diagnosis system. International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence, 2010, 3: 405-408.Chen Baojiang, Zeng Xiaoyuan. Research on structural frame of the embedded monitoring and control system for tower crane. 2010 International Conference on Mechanic Automation and Control Engineering. 2010: 5374-5377.

This study focuses on developing a new approach to seated work positions. It was conducted on 67 office workers who use the Video Display Terminal (VDT) as a major function of their working day. Muscle tension was measured by surface electromyography when subjects were asked to adopt four selected working postures. Pain was measured before and after ergonomic intervention on the Nordic scale, which was modified for this study. Performance was measured on timed typing tests. A psychosocial questionnaire was used to determine influences of job demands, and a diagnostic assessment was performed to determine symptoms and pre-existing musculoskeletal conditions. Furniture was used to place subjects in desired positions during the clinical testing sessions and the extended intervention period. The chair seat pan was adjusted to a forward tilt to promote a lordotic curve of the low back, resulting in an erect upper body and upright head position. The desk and keyboard were adjusted to the proper height for each worker. A neutral wrist position was obtained by lowering and tilting the keyboard away from the user. Results revealed muscle tension scores in the upper trapezius and forearm extensors were significantly reduced when the workers were placed with the head in a midline position, with forward-tilting seating and with use of a negative sloping keyboard tray. Subjects reported low pain scores at pretest so no changes were noted after intervention. Loss of control over job elements, lack of job satisfaction, and fear of job loss were related to an increase in muscle tension. Only fear of job loss correlated to increased pain levels. There was no relationship between any of the job demand factors and performance.

The current study investigated the task performance and subjective preference for two color displays with differing image generation technologies, the standard cathode ray tube shadow mask (CRT) display and the newer liquid crystal/cathode ray tube (LC/CRT) display. Six subjects performed three different information processing tasks using each of the two color display technologies and expressed their display preference via evaluation questionnaires. Ambient illumination measurements were obtained to determine preferred conditions for each display. A four-way factorial design was used to collect task performance data and ambient illumination preferences; performance data were collected as errors per unit task quantity for each of the task types. Subjective evaluations consisted of 20 five-interval bipolar adjective scales and a forced choice rating on eight display parameters. An analysis of variance procedure and post-hoc Newman-Keuls analyses were employed in the analyses of the performance and subjective bipolar adjective scale data; the forced choice rating scales were evaluated using the Sign Test. The task performance results indicate that neither display produced better task performance. The subjective data revealed mixed results; while the bipolar adjective scales indicate no differences between the two display technologies, the forced choice rating shows a preference for the LC/CRT display on some display parameters. A significant difference between the two displays was demonstrated for ambient illumination preferences; the LC/CRT was viewed in greater ambient illumination than the CRT display.
Master of Science

Automotive industries are implementing high-end technology with minimalistic design and advancing rapidly. Tesla Model 3 is among those automobiles replaced physical knobs with fully functional touchscreen screens to enhance the minimal interior aesthetic. All the in-vehicle touchscreen interaction requires visual attention allocation between driving and touchscreen interaction resulting in drivers' divided attention posing a hazard or risk to the driver's safety. This research aims to assess the impact of the vertical grid design of the Tesla Model 3 infotainment system on visual search time while multitasking. For comparison, a horizontal grid design was prototyped to see the difference in visual search time between vertical and horizontal grid designs. Task success rate, the number of incorrect searches, reaction time for search, and subjective measures were considered to assess the dimension of efficiency and satisfaction. Eleven novice participants performed visual search tasks and answered follow-up questions based upon the task experience. Visual search task was designed using Psycho-Py and to collect real-time data Pavlovia.org online platform was used to run the experiment. Each trial in the visual search tasks starts with a red color fixation cross presented on a grey background lasting on-screen for 500 milliseconds. This fixation cross was followed by an on-road driving video that contains a question presented on the top-center of the video display. An image of the infotainment system appears at the bottom right corner of the screen at different time stamps lasting for 2 seconds. When a participant presses the right or left key based on the response, the video automatically terminates. This is followed by a two-response window, one after the other; the first response window where the participant must type the visual searched target answer asked during the video. In the second response window, the participant must typecast the total number of cars counted. A fixation cross appears again for 500 milliseconds indicating to participants that the subsequent trial will begin after this. After task completion, follow-up questions were asked. The purpose of asking follow-up questions was to understand the frustrations and difficulty experienced by the participants while searching target on the infotainment screen. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative data was gathered to assess the goals of efficiency and satisfaction. The result indicates that task success rate or target miss rate, and incorrect task response are high in the vertical grid design of the Tesla Model 3 infotainment system. Visual search time for vertical grid conditions was significantly higher than the NHTSA guideline. The results showed that the horizontal grid design strategy leads to a better target visual search user experience. The study concludes that the Tesla Model 3 infotainment system lacks discoverability, goal-based design, affordance, visual momentum, mode awareness, and consistency with the user's mental model. A robust design is required to achieve the crucial information search without leading the driver to a high risk of causing adverse consequences due to interface design. This research was conducted and submitted to the faculty of the graduate program in Human Factors/ Ergonomics for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Science.Keywords: visual attention, NHTSA guideline, discoverability, affordance, visual momentum, mode awareness, mental model

Official statistics showed that more than half of level crossing accidents in Taiwan were caused by intrusion of road users violating the right-of-way of the railroad. Thus it is critical that addition measures be developed to prevent or mitigate the seriousness of intrusion incidences even though many warning facilities are already in place. In this paper we propose to use real-time crossing cite image to provide train drivers with more vital information than alarm signals. In addition, we also take advantage of the radio link capacity to display numerical information of train distance on the fly to deter potential intrusion attempts. The result of this project can be used as reference design for the augmentation of level crossing safety of rail systems facing similar intrusion problems.

The US-APWR, currently under Design Certification Review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is a four-loop evolutionary pressurized water reactor with a four-train active safety system by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Instrumentation and Control (I&C) System and Human Systems Interface (HSI) platform applied to the US-APWR is provided by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. This design is currently being applied to the latest Japanese PWR plant under construction and to the nuclear power plant I&C modernization program in Japan. The US-APWR’s fully digital I&C system and HSI platform utilizes computerized systems, including computer based procedures and alarm prioritization, relying principally on an HSI system with soft controls, console based video display units and a large, heads up, overview display panel. Conventional hard controls are limited to system level manual actions and a Diverse Actuation System. The overall design philosophy of the US-APWR is based on the concept that operator performance will be enhanced through the integration of safety and non-safety display and control systems in a robust digital environment. This philosophy is augmented, for diversity, by the application of independent safety-only soft displays and controls. As with all the advanced designs, the digital systems open as many questions as they answer. To address these new questions, for an eight-week period during the months of July and August 2008, an extensive verification and validation program was completed with the objective of assessing US operators’ performance in this digital design environment. Over this time period, eight operating crews were subjected to a four-day exercise in which seven scenarios were run on Mitsubishi’s dynamic simulator. In all, twenty-two US-licensed operators and senior operators took part in the program. Additionally, a PC verification software package was developed to independently evaluate video display screen designs. Subjective and objective data were collected on each crew for each scenario and an extensive convergent measures analysis was performed, resulting in the identification of both specific design as well as generic conclusions. This paper discusses the USAPWR design, the V&V program data collection and analysis, and the study results related to the ongoing discussion of the impacts of digital systems on human performance, such as workload, navigation, situation awareness, operator training and licensing.