Ergonomics Evaluation of Large Screen Display in Cockpit Based on Eye-Tracking Technology

Eye-tracking technology was used to study the visual sensitive area and the ergonomics of commonly used information encoding methods in large screen primary flight display (PFD) in order to optimize the interface design. Methods A total of 44 pilots (36 +/- 6 years) attended the experiment. Seven typical flight human-machine interface images were adapted according to varied factors such as 12 quadrants, 6 colors, and 10 presentation encodings which would affect the ergonomics design. The pilots were asked to search a target picture with full information intercepted from the typical images, and the eye tracker was used to record the eye movement data during the task. The performance differences were analyzed among factors. Results The results of multivariate test showed that: (1) There are significant differences between 12 quadrants and 7 typical pictures (P < 0.01), and the interaction effect between pictures and quadrants is significant (P < 0.01). (2) There were significant differences among the 6 colors, 7 typical pictures, and 12 quadrants groups (P < 0.01); and the interaction among three factors were significant (P < 0.01). (3) There were significant differences among the 10 presentation encodings, 7 typical pictures, and 12 quadrants (P < 0.01). The interaction among three factors was significant (P < 0.01). Conclusion (1) The visual sensitive area of the large screen primary flight display is quadrant 1, 5, 7; the area of visual insensitivity is 10, 12. (2) According to colors, red was the optic color, yellow and green were the worst color. (3) According to presentation encodings, white character with white borders and white character with red shading borders are optic encoding, and black character with yellow borders and green shading was the worst.