Eyes on the Mission: Mixed Methods Assessment of Eye-Tracker-Enabled Interactive Decision Support in a Simulated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System

TL;DR

This study evaluates an eye-tracker-based adaptive decision support tool in a simulated military command environment, showing it improves performance and is well-received, highlighting the potential of gaze-based interventions.

Contribution

Introduces and tests a real-time eye-tracking adaptive decision support system for military supervisors, demonstrating its effectiveness in a simulated environment.

Findings

Significant performance improvement with the DST present

Longer fixations on critical areas correlate with lower performance

Participants found the DST unobtrusive and positively received

Abstract

Supervisors in military command and control (C2) environments face dynamic conditions. Dynamically changing information continuously flows to the supervisors through multiple displays. In this environment, important pieces of information can be overlooked due to the complexity of tasks and environments. This study examined the efficacy of an eye-tracker-based adaptive attention-guided decision support tool (DST) for supervisors in a simulated C2 environment. The DST monitors supervisors' visual attention allocation in real time and displays visually salient cues if critical changes or events are missed. Twenty-five military students participated in a simulated intelligence task. Results indicated significant performance enhancement when the adaptive DST was present. Eye-tracking analysis also showed that longer, more frequent fixations on critical areas of interest were negatively correlated with performance. Additionally, post-experiment interviews revealed that the adaptive DST was unobtrusive and positively received. These findings underscore the potential of real-time gaze-based interventions to optimize supervisory decision-making. Future research could incorporate AI-driven approaches to better support supervisors in complex task environments.