Effective attention allocation behavior and its measurement: a preliminary study

In general, evaluation of human-machine interface design remains a challenging task. Specifically, there remains a lack of method for tracking effective human operator's attention. This paper presents a study aimed at devising such a method. This method is based on a combination of operators' eye movement and hand movement behaviors. The eye movement reflects the operators' cognitive process and attention allocation, while the hand movement reflects the operators' physical action, which is the result of a cognitive process. Effectiveness of that piece of cognition (eye movement) can therefore be evaluated based on the result of an action (hand movement). The said measure, which may be called the hand-eye measure, is examined for its sensitivity to a good or poor operation behavior and patterns that are further correlated to the operator's behavior and performance. At present, the patterns across the whole operation period are explored. A reference system is employed to validate the hand-eye measure. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.