Utilising state of the art eye tracking equipment to improve outcomes for maritime watchkeeper's on nocturnal navigational watches

Abstract: The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (IRPCS) require a ship's Officer of the Watch (OOW) to maintain a proper lookout at all times. This includes looking out of the window as well as monitoring information via Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) that are found on the modern-day ship's bridge. These displays lead the OOW to spend time interrogating their various menus and functions to seek required information, thus distracting them from their primary task of maintaining a lookout. This paper identifies the function of the human eye in performing the lookout function during the hours of darkness. State of the art Eye Tracking Devices (ETDs) are utilised to collect eye movement data in both real-world and simulator-based ship bridges, and this is used to identify the impact that MFDs have at night in reducing the eye's effectiveness in the watchkeeping task. A novel scanning pattern is presented that can be adopted by OOWs to make the best use of the eye's physiology, improving lookout effectiveness at night and reducing the distraction caused by MFDs. This paper aims to assist OOWs in making better use of their eyes, enabling them to maintain optimum lookout performance during the hours of darkness.

Keywords: Proper lookout, Eye Tracking Devices, Watchkeeping, Multifunction displays, Scan Pattern, Window Wiper Scan

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004045

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