An approach to developing adaptive interface technology for advanced airborne crew stations

A program of research and development is currently underway at the US Air Force Armstrong Laboratory's Synthesized Immersion Research Environment (SIRE) Facility to develop adaptive interfaces for use in advanced airborne crew stations. The purpose of the work is to develop displays and controls whose characteristics can be automatically updated and optimized as a function of one or both of the following factors: (1) operator workload and situation awareness as indexed by physiological and/or behavioral data, and (2) the dynamically changing characteristics of the operator's environment. The paper provides an overview of the SIRE Facility's program of research and development on adaptive interface design. To support the goal of developing an adaptive crew station, the authors are currently working to develop a model of the human operator in a tactical aviation setting that will permit the development of prototype adaptive algorithms. In addition, they are developing and evaluating integrated multisensory display concepts with which to provide information to crew members in natural and intuitive ways, and alternative control technologies (e.g., brain-actuated control, gesture-based control, etc.) to permit hands-off control of crew station systems. These latter two avenues of research and development are intended to provide a rich set of crew station design options to support an adaptive approach to interface design.