Scalable Human Computer Interaction in Control Rooms as Pervasive Computing Environments

Private and professional life contexts must be viewed as pervasive computing environments, with the aim to address peoples' needs and tasks as well as cooperation and communication issues. However, there is a risk, that this results in handling a growing number of devices and complex interactions. The question arises to what extent interaction concepts that were designed for single or a few devices can be transferred to such environments. This can be seen as a scaling problem in terms of cognitive ergonomics. This is also an important issue in safety-critical domains, where control rooms serve as central units, as the demands on operators are increasing. Support is needed in decision-making, communication and collaboration. This paper describes the research questions and methodology of the development of design principles for scalable interaction design in control rooms from a cognitive ergonomics perspective. The expected outcome is a set of concepts that are specifically suited for safety-critical pervasive computing environments.