Differentiation of input-output relations to facilitate user’s correct awareness of operating mode of automated control system

This study investigates a practical guideline on human-machine interaction design to facilitate human operator\´s correct awareness of the actual operating state of an automated control system in their joint activity. Based on the comprehension that a human being is a "proactive" agent who would affect the external world to obtain new cues to foster its understandings, the mapping structures between the human operator\´s input operations and the machine\´s response behaviors, i.e., the input-output relations, may be one of the dominant characters that can explain the operator\´s awareness of the machine\´s operating state. From this perspective, we speculate that different control modes with similar input-output relations should be easily mixed up with one another since interactions mediated by those relations would intimate a same mode. This hypothesis was verified through an experiment using a driving simulator that examined drivers on their recognitions of the operating mode of ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) while driving with it. Another experiment confirmed that a human-machine interaction design to differentiate modes in their input-output relations could successfully reduce mode confusion errors.