David LiuBachelor of Engineering (Software)
Honours Thesis (2004)
Abstract
Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) are electronic versions of technical manuals referenced by engineers performing maintenance work on complex mechanical equipment. These manuals are often very large and can easily exceed 100 000 pages in size.Wearable computers are self-contained, self-powered computers worn on the users' body. They are designed to be available for use at any time and help people with their "real world" problems. The most popular input/output interfaces used with wearable computers include voice recognition (think "Star Wars") and head-mounted displays (as seen in movies such as "Robocop" and "Terminator").
There are two main benefits to using IETMs on wearable computers. First, maintenance instructions and information is available to the engineer immediately when required and at the engineer's place of work. Second, they are usable in environments not suitable for desktop or laptop computers, such as when climbing up cranes or in cramped mine shafts.
Formal usability tests were conducted under controlled conditions in the UQ Usability Laboratories. Eight team members from UQ Racing's Formula SAE-A team participated in the usability test. Video data and interviews were collected during the usability tests for analysis.
Usability concerns are very important when designing wearable computer systems for practical use. This study has taken a user-centred design and evaluation approach instead of a technological approach. This provided significant insights into the way maintenance engineers would use the systems and also the aspects of the system they are most concerned with. Future studies will be able to focus on these areas to ensure that a wearable IETM system can be effectively used in the work place.
Publications and Presentations
UQ Engineering Honours Thesis - pdfIEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computing (ISWC) - Doctoral Consortium (2004) - pdf
OZCHI (2004) - pdf
NICTA Multi-modal User Interface Symposium (2005) - pdf, HMD, video
Last updated: 30th November 2007.