Effects of Curved and Flat Display Cockpit Systems on Visual Fatigue, Perceived Performance, and Gazing Behavior of Novice and Expert Pilots

Abstract

Shupp, Andrews, Kurdziolek, Yost, and North (2009) showed that people completed searching, route tracing, and comparing tasks faster and felt more comfortable mentally and physically with a curved display clusters compared with a flat panel display clusters. Visual attention plays a major role in a pilot’s ability to conduct safe and precise flight operations. Generally expert pilots tend to dwell on the instruments for a shorter duration than novice pilots (Glaholt, 2014). The eyes of novice pilots also moved over pertinent instrumentation signals more frequently (Glaholt, 2014). This study evaluated aircraft pilot performance when interacting with curved and flat displays for general aviation aircraft cockpit systems. Nine instructor pilots and nine student pilots conducted four simulation flights in a flight simulator that involved optionally included emergency situations. They flew two flights in each display condition. Subjective ratings were obtained with respect to visual fatigue, speed of scanning flight information, accuracy of verified flight information, and time to see out the window. Gaze data of this study were also obtained using an eye-tracking device. The curved display provided relative benefits with respect to all four subjective rating criteria, and the heat maps showed that the participants had fewer gaze activities with the curved display. The instructor group perceived that visual fatigue during flight operation with the curved display cockpit was lower than the flat display. The student group perceived that the curved display increased the speed of scanning flight information, the accuracy of verified flight information, and the time to see out the window for safety. The objective measure of the human gaze heat map showed less eye movements in the curved display condition compared with the flat display. Participants could obtain sufficient flight information even while they saw the curved cockpit instruments less frequently than the flat display. Since all participants completed their flight operations safely, there was no issue with their flight performance with the curved condition. This study showed the evident tendency of subjective perception during the flight with curved cockpit displays. The large-curved display cockpit could benefit pilots in terms of visual fatigue, the speed and accuracy of verified flight information, and the time to see out the window during flight operations. The curved display showed promise as a good option for improving pilots’ flight performance. Gaze data including dwell times will be statistically analyzed to find the specific gaze patterns in the two groups. More studies of the curved display cockpits will be necessary to verify the findings from this study. In the future, empirical studies about the curved cockpit displays for fighter aircraft with military operations will show more benefits with respect to the visual attention. © 2021 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.