Preliminary investigation of wearable computers for task guidance in aircraft inspection

This paper describes a preliminary investigation of how the capabilities of wearable computers may be used to provide task guidance in mobile environments. Specifically, this study examined how the capabilities of wearable computers may be used to aid a user in an inspection task, using as a case study the procedural task of preflight inspection of a general aviation aircraft. Two different configurations of a computer-based, voice-activated task guidance system and the current method of preflight inspection were compared and evaluated. Initial results demonstrate an over reliance on the computer by the pilots and indicate the importance of the user interface design to the performance of the inspectors. The paper concludes with recommendations on promising directions of research.