Comparing voice with touch screen for controlling the instructor’s operating station of a flight simulator

Flight simulators are expensive devices that airlines use to train their pilots. Currently, the instructor interact with the simulator through touch screens. We analyzed how a voice driven interface can improve the trainer´s interaction time efficiency and fluency with the simulator. Real training scenarios were analyzed and 12 representative tasks were chosen for this study. Time comparisons between the voice driven interface and two touch screen interfaces are reported. Twenty voice commands have been derived from the 12 tasks. The analysis of task completion time for touch screen is based on a model-based approach that relieves us from having users performing tasks with the interfaces, the KLM-GOMS model. Results show an average execution time gain of 33.8% using voice commands compared to touch screen commands. However, even though the majority of commands have faster input time for the voice activated interface, some are faster to enter through the touch screen, which suggests that an interface that allows both types of interaction mode might be best.