Functional Assessment of Head-eye Coordination during Driving. 238 people per 100,000 population were hospitalized and 9 people per 100,000 died as a result of road-transport related injury in Australia in 2002. We will address this issue by assessing the head eye coordination strategies for young drivers, for proficient drivers and for aged drivers to determine those behaviors and strategies that are associated with various levels of performance. This insight could be affectively communicated t ....Functional Assessment of Head-eye Coordination during Driving. 238 people per 100,000 population were hospitalized and 9 people per 100,000 died as a result of road-transport related injury in Australia in 2002. We will address this issue by assessing the head eye coordination strategies for young drivers, for proficient drivers and for aged drivers to determine those behaviors and strategies that are associated with various levels of performance. This insight could be affectively communicated to others and would provide the basis for educational material and methods that would improve operator skill, safety, and performance. These individual improvements would provide overall benefits such as improved transport efficiency, reduced accident rates, saved lives and a reduction in related social costs.Read moreRead less
How tired is too tired? Determining the effects of fatigue on pilots' performance in a simulated flight environment. Increasingly, pilots are required to work more flexible flight schedules that expose them to greater levels of work-related fatigue. Consequently, a recent federal parliamentary inquiry recommended that a fatigue risk management approach be applied to the regulation of pilots? flight and duty times. A key aspect of such an approach, and the aim of the proposed project, is to det ....How tired is too tired? Determining the effects of fatigue on pilots' performance in a simulated flight environment. Increasingly, pilots are required to work more flexible flight schedules that expose them to greater levels of work-related fatigue. Consequently, a recent federal parliamentary inquiry recommended that a fatigue risk management approach be applied to the regulation of pilots? flight and duty times. A key aspect of such an approach, and the aim of the proposed project, is to determine the level of fatigue at which pilots? ability to operate an aircraft reaches a safety-critical level. This research will provide a scientifically validated benchmark for regulating pilots? flight and duty times. Ultimately, this will improve safety for the flying public.Read moreRead less
Identification and Examination of Visual Cues for Aircraft Glideslope Control. While aviation safety has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, accidents are still more common during landing than any other stage of flight. This project aims to improve our understanding of the way pilots use visual information to land an aircraft. Once our findings have been incorporated into existing training programs, this much-needed information should result in: (i) reduced pilot training time and cost ....Identification and Examination of Visual Cues for Aircraft Glideslope Control. While aviation safety has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, accidents are still more common during landing than any other stage of flight. This project aims to improve our understanding of the way pilots use visual information to land an aircraft. Once our findings have been incorporated into existing training programs, this much-needed information should result in: (i) reduced pilot training time and cost; (ii) increased trainee pilot safety and confidence; and (iii) reduced aircraft maintenance costs. A PhD student, who will be trained in visual perception and aviation, should contribute significantly to future aviation research in this country.Read moreRead less
Cognitive Cue Analysis: Seeing the Unseen in Human Performance. The aim of this project is to examine a radically new approach to the assessment of pilots. We have created a new theoretical model that links the way in which cues are accessed to the application of various skills including decision-making. In validating this model, our objective is to develop a tool that will assist the evaluation of particular skills in a wide range of environments, including aviation. This significance of this p ....Cognitive Cue Analysis: Seeing the Unseen in Human Performance. The aim of this project is to examine a radically new approach to the assessment of pilots. We have created a new theoretical model that links the way in which cues are accessed to the application of various skills including decision-making. In validating this model, our objective is to develop a tool that will assist the evaluation of particular skills in a wide range of environments, including aviation. This significance of this project lies in the development of an innovative model of the relationship between between cues and the application of skills. We expect that the outcomes of this project will lead to much more efficient and accurate assessments of performance, and the opportunity to target particular skills. This will lead to savings for training organisations and increased safety in transportation industries.Read moreRead less
Colour visual processing by honeybees: solutions for decision making in complex environments. Honeybees are a cost and time efficient animal model for testing how information is processed in a miniature brain containing less than 0.01% of the number of cells found in a human brain. Bees use their ultraviolet, blue and green colour vision to efficiently find flowers in complex environments. This project investigates how colour information is processed by bees, and develops computer models to eval ....Colour visual processing by honeybees: solutions for decision making in complex environments. Honeybees are a cost and time efficient animal model for testing how information is processed in a miniature brain containing less than 0.01% of the number of cells found in a human brain. Bees use their ultraviolet, blue and green colour vision to efficiently find flowers in complex environments. This project investigates how colour information is processed by bees, and develops computer models to evaluate how novel solutions might be applicable for robotic vision. The model also allows for testing of how environmental factors, like changes in climate, might affect the way in which bees choose to visit certain flower types, including plants that have important environmental and economic impacts.Read moreRead less
Driving in the Fog: Speed Illusions Caused by Variations of Object Contrast. Accurate judgement of the speed of 3D motion is essential to many real world tasks, from driving a vehicle to playing sports. Illusions of perceived speed can occur when the range of brightness levels (ie. the contrast) is reduced, such as in fog, when suffering from cataracts, or when using some sunglasses. This raises issues of safety for drivers (pilots/captains etc). It is expected that advances in the understanding ....Driving in the Fog: Speed Illusions Caused by Variations of Object Contrast. Accurate judgement of the speed of 3D motion is essential to many real world tasks, from driving a vehicle to playing sports. Illusions of perceived speed can occur when the range of brightness levels (ie. the contrast) is reduced, such as in fog, when suffering from cataracts, or when using some sunglasses. This raises issues of safety for drivers (pilots/captains etc). It is expected that advances in the understanding of these effects will inform road safety policy and practice to benefit drivers and pedestrians and to guide the manufacturing of eyewear and display devices (eg. military heads-up-displays). It is also anticipated that this project will be able to answer the much-debated question 'What colour should cricket balls be?'
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A Scalable Theory of Behavior Composition for Practical Engineering Models of Human Performance. Minimizing human error and maximizing human performance is a major design goal in safety critical systems. The development of methods for affordable human performance modeling has widespread applicability for evaluating user-system interfaces. The compositional method explored here has been shown to make accurate predictions reduce model development time by an order of magnitude. Large safety critica ....A Scalable Theory of Behavior Composition for Practical Engineering Models of Human Performance. Minimizing human error and maximizing human performance is a major design goal in safety critical systems. The development of methods for affordable human performance modeling has widespread applicability for evaluating user-system interfaces. The compositional method explored here has been shown to make accurate predictions reduce model development time by an order of magnitude. Large safety critical applications, such as military or air traffic control systems, would benefit greatly. The proposed work tests whether the compositional methods will scale to more complex domains. The work will be coordinated with Australian industry, academia, and government research efforts.Read moreRead less
Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages thes ....Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages these tasks. This project will reveal changes that occur in the processing of visual objects by the bee's brain with increasing experience, with potential applications including robotics or building interfaces between sensors and biological systems.Read moreRead less
The initiation and control of action in motor vehicle driving. Every time we pull up to a traffic light or overtake another vehicle our brain is making a whole series of critical decisions about when and how to carry out the manoeuvre accurately and safely. This project seeks to better understand the processes involved. Using the latest, high fidelity GPS and accelerometer technology, highly accurate measurements of driver behaviour and vehicle dynamics will be made in a real vehicle. Understand ....The initiation and control of action in motor vehicle driving. Every time we pull up to a traffic light or overtake another vehicle our brain is making a whole series of critical decisions about when and how to carry out the manoeuvre accurately and safely. This project seeks to better understand the processes involved. Using the latest, high fidelity GPS and accelerometer technology, highly accurate measurements of driver behaviour and vehicle dynamics will be made in a real vehicle. Understanding when and how we carry out these types of basic tasks will play a central role in future brake, suspension and steering system design; will help guide the specifications of road and road sign design; and will help motivate additions or alterations to current driver training programmes.Read moreRead less
Complex Motion Processing in Primate Visual Cortex. As we move through the world, a dynamic visual image is projected onto our retinas. The pattern of movement in the retinal image contains information about three-dimensional structure in the environment and the time of impending collisions. Our visual systems are expert at exploiting this information, enabling us to navigate through complex visual environments at a level far beyond the most sophisticated artificial systems. We plan to investiga ....Complex Motion Processing in Primate Visual Cortex. As we move through the world, a dynamic visual image is projected onto our retinas. The pattern of movement in the retinal image contains information about three-dimensional structure in the environment and the time of impending collisions. Our visual systems are expert at exploiting this information, enabling us to navigate through complex visual environments at a level far beyond the most sophisticated artificial systems. We plan to investigate complex motion processing in the primate brain by recording the responses of neurons in identified regions of the visual cortex of macaque monkeys to a range of behaviourally relevant motion stimuli.Read moreRead less