A new project that will allow en-route air traffic controllers to collaborate around shared interactive tabletops will be demostrated at the 2007 International Paris Air Show by EUROCONTROL and…
A new project that will allow en-route air traffic controllers to collaborate around shared interactive tabletops will be demostrated at the 2007 International Paris Air Show by EUROCONTROL and IntuiLab.
MIAMI, Multi Actor Man Machine Interface – aims to find a balance between the benefits of past systems such as collaborative practices and mutual awareness, and current computer-based systems. Table-top interfaces may have three key advantages: more than two controllers can work at the same position, real-time tasks and workload are distributed differently and the tasks are less specific to individual air traffic controllers than in the past.
“Computer-based interaction history has witnessed many innovative technologies, however mostly focused on the individual. A new generation of devices is enabling tabletop computing with genuine collaboration capabilities,” said Vincent Encontre, Chief Executive Officer at IntuiLab.
From 18 June, an early release of the MAMMI experimental test-bed will be demonstrated on the IntuiLab stand at Le Bourget. IntuiLab is leading the MAMMI project which is run by the ’Long Term Investigation’ programme of the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre (EEC), and involves a core of 10 researchers, experts and designers, as well as several Air Traffic Controllers from various European countries.
“MAMMI is an example of how the EEC stimulates the incubation of new ideas in collaboration with several partners. Computer-based workstations are in the process of replacing paper strips in the control room. Through MAMMI, the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre explores new ways of bringing back the collaborative side of the air traffic controller’s job, while retaining the benefits of digital systems,” said Marc Brochard, Head of the ’Long Term Investigation’ programme at the EEC.
The MAMMI consortium is composed of IntuiLab (leader, HMI design and prototyping, interaction design), ENAC (the French Civil Aviation University, expertise in Air Traffic Control and human-machine interfaces), THALES Research & Technology (modelling of controller collaboration) and Intactile Design (human-machine interfaces and graphic design).
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