Eyes on the future of e-Navigation

How far we are looking ahead in the maritime industry is a topic I’ve tried to unpack over the last couple of weeks and the results so far have conformed more to short term problem-solving than long term strategic needs.

So it was a matter of good timing that the Economist included an article on eye tracking in its technology quarterly around the same time as the recent DigitalShip Athens event. As the Economist observed, the ability to use neuroscience to track the behaviour of consumers is already providing marketers with invaluable data on how to package and position brands.

But the applications go far beyond how we choose our breakfast cereal. In the US, eye tracking is already being used to alert drivers in danger of falling asleep at the wheel. Disabled people can use it to operate computers and wheelchairs and surgeons can use it as a ‘third hand’ to control robotic equipment. Naturally there are military applications too but typically there was no mention of shipping.

That made the presentation by Dr. Nikitas Nikitakos, Professor, Dept. of Shipping Trade and Transport, University of the Aegean to DS Athens the more timely. Dr Nikitakos’ group is using the principles of neuroscience to study the usability and ergonomics of bridge equipment, in particular to assess how bridge staff would work with the IMO’s e-Navigation programme which promises more screens and machines on the bridge of the future.

Once this might have been a blue-sky technology but the falling cost of equipment makes its application to business and consumer markets increasingly practical.

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally a branch of biology it has been transformed by the application of computer engineering to cover chemistry, mathematics, linguistics, medicine and applied sciences. And there is plenty to study, since the nervous system is the most complex organ system in body: the brain alone is home to 100m neurons and 100 trn synapses.

At the University of the Aegean, cognitive neuroscience is being used to study the affect of external conditions on the nervous system, such as what attracts the user’s attention, what changes their perception and what activity or processes take place during decision making. One outcome of the research will be to develop interactive technologies that can benefit from cognitive ergonomics. Understanding how the bridge team operates means that the design and position of equipment can be improved.

But Dr Nikitakos says ergonomics is more than just maritime feng shui. It is crucial in managing the health, safety and mental workload of bridge teams and he hopes to produce guidance how to evaluate the optimum installation of equipment on the bridge.

“Cognitive neuroscience employs three means of assessment; experiential verification, operational definition and repetition and uses tools such as eye tracking, MRI, speech sentiment analysis and facial analysis to understand the effect of their environment on the subject,” he explains.

His group focuses mainly on using a specially-designed helmet to track the gaze of a subject’s eyes across bridge equipment as well as employing speech recorders to process voice commands onboard.

Capturing the needs of the user is at the heart of e-Navigation and Dr Nikitakos believes usability will be key to getting personnel to adapt to the new equipment and systems they might be using.

“We are defining usability in terms of ISO standards as the extent to which equipment can be used to achieve specific goals effectively and efficiently. For marine usability, we are focussing tests on evaluating usability of specific products for real users,” he says.

In practice, this means evaluating usability and ergonomic set-up on the bridge for each command position, as well as issues such as the quality of colours used in displays. He thinks equipment manufacturers and bridge designers could use the outputs from the research results to model modes of interactivity and how to assist command functions and improve teamwork while minimising stress.

The research takes a mixed – and practical – approach, assessing inputs such as GPS, ECDIS and steering control and working with maritime academies in simulator situations supplemented by questionnaires and interviews.

The university is also working with a Japanese research team attached to the IMO’s e-Navigation sub-committee which is adding neuroscience to its observations and develop more robust data, examining the differences between cadets and expert users and between nationalities and genders – and  suggesting what may need to be modified to improve usability.

As Dr Nikitakos points out the University of the Aegean is far from the first institution to study how neuroscience can measure behaviour and suggest improvements to usability, but he says his group is the first to consider the this technology in terms of the maritime sector. But presumably there will be more people keeping an eye on it now.